The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore () is the archdiocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in northern and western Maryland in the United States. It is the metropolitan see of the Ecclesiastical Province of Baltimore.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore is the oldest archdiocese in the United States. The Vatican in 1859 granted the archbishop of Baltimore the right of precedence in the nation at liturgies, meetings, and Plenary Councils in 1859. It is the premier episcopal see of the Catholic Church in the United States of America, as "prerogative of place".

As of 2020, the archdiocese had an estimated Catholic population of 525,000 with 198 diocesan priests, 193 religious priests and 169 permanent deacons in 139 parishes.

The Archdiocese of Baltimore has two major seminaries: St. Mary's Seminary and University in Baltimore and Mount St. Mary's Seminary in Emmitsburg.

It was revealed in late 2016 that the Archdiocese of Baltimore had paid off numerous settlements since 2011 for abuse victims.

Territory
The Archdiocese of Baltimore comprises the City of Baltimore and nine Maryland counties:

Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett–Harford, Howard, and Washington.

History

1600 to 1700
The first Catholic presence in the original British colonies in America was the proprietary colony of Maryland, established by Cecil Calvert, 2nd Baron Baltimore in 1634. A Catholic himself, Calvert intended the colony to be open to English Catholics facing persecution at home.

In 1689, members of the growing Puritan population in Maryland staged a takeover of the colonial government and effectively outlawed Catholicism. In 1691, alarmed at the violent conflicts in Maryland, the British Crown took over the colony from the Calvert family.

1700 to 1789

The new royal governor in Maryland imposed less sweeping restrictions on Catholics than those of the Puritan regime.  These restrictions would stay in place until after the end of the American Revolution.

During the British colonial period, the small Catholic communities in the American colonies were under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England. The first Catholic church in Baltimore, St. Peter's, was dedicated in 1770.

In November 1783, after the end of the Revolution, the Catholic clergy in Maryland petitioned the Vatican for permission to nominate a priest as superior of the missions for the United States.  The superior would have some of the powers of a bishop and be in charge of the American Catholic Church. After receiving papal approval, the clergy nominated Reverend John Carroll to become superior. Pope Pius VI in June 1784 confirmed Carroll as superior of the missions. This papal act established an American hierarchy, removing the American Catholic Church from the authority of the British Catholic Church

In November 1784, Pius VI erected the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States encompassing the entire country. Since Maryland had the largest Catholic population, Pope Pius VI placed the prefecture see in Baltimore and appointed Carroll as its first prefect apostolic.

1789 to 1800
Four years later, Pius VI in 1789 elevated the prefecture into the Diocese of Baltimore, making it first diocese solely within the United States. St. Peter's, the only Catholic church in Baltimore, was designated as the pro-cathedral (temporary cathedral).  The new Diocese of Baltimore covered the entire nation.

To train priests for his new diocese, Carroll asked the Fathers of the Company of Saint Sulpice to come to Baltimore. They arrived in 1791 and started the nucleus of St. Mary's College and Seminary in that city. Also in 1791, Carroll convened the first diocesan synod in the United States. Twenty-two priests attended the synod, setting national policies for baptism, confirmation, penance, the celebration of the liturgy in the mass, anointing of the sick, and mixed marriages.

The Vatican in 1795 appointed Reverend Leonard Neale as coadjutor bishop in Baltimore to assist Carroll. In 1798, Carroll won a civil case in Pennsylvania that acknowledged his position as leader of the American church. Carroll gave his approval to the founding of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary, who in 1799 established Visitation Academy in Georgetown.

1800 to 1821
Carroll ordained the first American-born Catholic priest, Reverend William Matthews, at St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral in Baltimore in 1800. In 1806, Carroll started construction of the Cathedral of the Assumption in Baltimore As the Catholic population of the United States grew, the Vatican saw the need to create more dioceses. In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected four new dioceses from what now became the Archdiocese of Baltimore.  The pope named Carroll as the first archbishop of Baltimore.

After Carroll died in 1815, Neale automatically succeed him as archbishop of Baltimore. However, due to Neale's bad health, Pope Pius VII in 1816 appointed Reverend Ambrose Maréchal as coadjutor archbishop. When Neale died in 1817, Maréchal succeeded him as archbishop of Baltimore.

Maréchal believed that his most pressing problem was a shortage of priests. It was aggravated by parish trustees who thought they had the power to assign these priests. In some Irish parishes, the trustees would demand Irish priests, even if they were not qualified. In 1820, Bishop Flaget of Bardstown warned Maréchal about a man claiming to be a priest who wanted to practice in the archdiocese.  This individual produced positive letters of introduction from his bishop.  However, when he was observed celebrating mass, it became clear that the so-called priest was incompetent. Maréchal later advised the Propaganda Fide (now the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples) in Rome about this problem.

1821 to 1850
Maréchal dedicated the completed Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Cathedral in May 1821. Later in 1821, Maréchal went to Rome on archdiocese business.  One problem he had faced in Maryland was the disputed ownership of the White Marsh plantation in Bowie.  The Order of Jesus had received the plantation as a gift in 1728 and claimed it as their property. Maréchal said that the plantation actually belonged to the archdiocese.  The Vatican gave the archdiocese ownership of White Marsh.

On January 8, 1828, Reverend James Whitfield of Baltimore was appointed coadjutor archbishop of the archdiocese by Pope Leo XII. Before Whitfield could be consecrated as coadjutor, Maréchal died on January 29, 1828.  Whitfield was finally consecrated as archbishop in June 1828. He convened a synod for the diocesan clergy in 1831 and the Second Provincial Council of Baltimore in 1833. Throughout his tenure, Whitfield worked for the welfare of the African American community. He authorized the foundation of the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first religious order of African-American women in the United States.  Whitfield talked about how he would have liked to evangelize the hundreds of thousands of enslaved African-Americans in Virginia.

Pope Gregory XVI in March 1834 appointed Reverend Samuel Eccleston as coadjutor archbishop to assist Whitfield.  When Whitfield died in October 1834, Eccleston automatically succeeded him as archbishop. Eccleston encouraged religious orders to establish mother houses in his diocese, particularly those orders that could provide social services to the growing number of Catholic immigrants in the industrializing cities. The Sisters of the Visitation increased the number of their academies in the city and the archdiocese, the Brothers of St. Patrick opened a trade school near Baltimore, and the Redemptorists provided services for German-speaking immigrants. The Brothers of the Christian Schools founded Calvert Hall School in 1845 in Baltimore.

In 1847, Eccleston was planning to disband the Oblate Sisters of Providence, but was dissuaded by Redemptorist Father Thaddeus Anwander. St. Charles College was established in 1848 in Howard County on land donated by the planter Charles Carroll. Between 1837 and 1849, Eccleston held five provincial councils in Baltimore. He also started several new parishes during his administration. Eccleston died in 1851.

1850 to 1866
The Vatican continued to erect new dioceses and vicariates out of the Archdiocese of Baltimore through the 19th century as the church evolved and grew in the United States.

Following the death of Eccleston, Bishop Francis Kenrick of Philadelphia was named the sixth archbishop of Baltimore by Pope Pius IX in 1851.  He presided over the First Plenary Council of Baltimore in 1852. As archbishop, Kenrick expanded parochial schools throughout the archdiocese.  Under his tenure, parochial schools were free for all students, and were supported directly by the parishes. Kenrick died in 1863. The next archbishop of Baltimore was Bishop Martin Spalding from the Diocese of Louisville, appointed by Pope Pius IX.

1866 to 1900
In 1866, Spalding founded St. Mary's Industrial School in Baltimore, a boys reformatory. Spalding conducted a visitation of the archdiocese, during which he reportedly administered confirmation to 8,000 people. Spalding recruited priests for the archdiocese from All Hallows College in Ireland and the American College at Louvain in Belgium He also organized the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul as well as the Association of St. Joseph, a society for the care of impoverished girls.

After the end of the American Civil War in 1865, Spalding raised $10,000 in the archdiocese for relief efforts in the former Confederate States of America. He also took a special interest in the spiritual welfare of the African-Americans who had just been freed from slavery. Writing to Archbishop John McCloskey, Spalding said, "Four million of these unfortunates are thrown on our charity, and they silently but eloquently appeal to us for help." He invited Reverend Herbert Vaughan and the Mill Hill Fathers from England to minister exclusively among freedmen. In October 1866, Spalding presided over the Second Plenary Council of Baltimore.

After Spalding died in 1871, Pius IX appointed bishop James Bayley from the Diocese of Newark as the next archbishop of Baltimore in 1872. He convened the Eighth Provincial Synod in 1875 and enacted new regulations on clerical dress, mixed marriages, and church music. Bayley consecrated the cathedral in 1876 and retired a large amount of archdiocesan debt. In May 1877, Pius IX selected Bishop James Gibbons of Richmond as coadjutor archbishop to assist the sick Bayley. After Bayley died in October 1877, Gibbons succeeded him as archbishop of Baltimore. In 1884, Gibbons founded the House of the Good Shepherd in Baltimore, a reformatory for female criminals.

1900 to 1940
After the end of World War I in 1919, Gibbons supported American participation in the new League of Nations. He was initially opposed to the women's suffrage movement in the United States.  However, when the nineteenth amendment to the US Constitution passed in 1920, allowing women to vote, Gibbons urged women to exercise that right, describing it "...not only as a right but as a strict social duty." Gibbons died in 1921

Bishop Michael Curley of the Diocese of Saint Augustine was the next archbishop of Baltimore, named by Pope Benedict XV in 1921. His arrival in his new city was described in the press as "one of the greatest welcomes ever tendered a new citizen of Baltimore." During his tenure in Baltimore, Curley established 66 schools, placing the importance of constructing schools over churches. In 1926, he declared, "I defy any system of grammar school education in the United States to prove itself superior to the system that is being maintained in the Archdiocese of Baltimore." He also established diocesan offices for Catholic Charities in 1923 and for the Society for the Propagation of the Faith in 1925.

In 1939, Pope Pius XII erected the Archdiocese of Washington, taking the District of Columbia and five nearby Maryland counties from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The pope selected Curley to serve as archbishop of Washington.  The two archdioceses now shared the same archbishop. Curley used the title of Archbishop of Baltimore-Washington during this period, although the two archdioceses were separate entities.

1940 to 1989
After Curley died in 1947, Pius XII appointed Monsignor Patrick A. O'Boyle as archbishop of Washington and Bishop Francis Keough of the Diocese of Providence as archbishop of Baltimore. During the 14 years of Keough's administration, the Catholic population of the archdiocese grew from 265,000 to 400,000. Keough dedicated the new Cathedral of Mary Our Queen in Baltimore in 1959; he also built many new schools, homes, and orphanages.

In July 1961, Pope John XXIII named Bishop Lawrence Shehan of the Diocese of Bridgeport to assist Keough as coadjutor archbishop.  When Keough died in December 1961, Shehan automatically succeeded him as archbishop of Baltimore. Shehan was a strong supporter of the American Civil Rights movement. He banned racial segregation in all of the archdiocesan institutions in 1962 and participated in the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. Shehan also maintained good relations with the Jewish and Eastern Orthodox communities in the archdiocese. Shehan worked with his friend Harry Lee Doll, Episcopal Bishop of Maryland, on both civil rights and ecumenical issues. Along with the president of St. Mary's Seminary and University, Shehan and Doll in 1968 founded the Ecumenical Institute at St. Mary's.

Following Shehan's retirement in 1974, Pope Paul VI named Bishop William Borders of the Diocese of Orlando as the 13th archbishop of Baltimore that same year.

During his 15-year tenure in Baltimore, Borders divided the archdiocese into three vicariates and appointed his auxiliary bishops as vicars over them.  He reorganized the Archdiocesan Central Services, naming cabinet-level secretaries to carry out the administrative work of the archdiocese.  Borders clarified and strengthened the role of the archdiocesan pastoral council, and combined the board of consultors and the priests senate to form the priests' council. He initiated a Department of Pastoral Planning and Management,  an Office of Fund Development and an evangelization effort. Instead of residing at an apartment at the Basilica of the Assumption, Borders lived alone at the former sexton's lodge. Borders became what Baltimore Magazine called the "king of the soup kitchens".  While he was archbishop, the budget for Catholic Charities grew from $2.5 million a year to $33 million a year, and its staff expanded from 200 to over 1,000. Borders retired in 1989.

1989 to present
Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop William H. Keeler from the Diocese of Harrisburg as the next archbishop of Baltimore in 1989. Keeler was responsible for the restoration of the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

After Keeler retired in 2006, John Paul II replaced him with Archbishop Edwin O'Brien from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA. In 2008, O'Brien dedicated the Pope John Paul II Prayer Garden in Baltimore, which he called a "sanctuary in a suffering city." In 2011, he became grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem in Rome.

In 2012, Bishop William E. Lori of Bridgeport was appointed archbishop of Baltimore by Pope Benedict XVI.   In 2019, Lori released "The Journey to Racial Justice: Repentance, Healing and Action." The document acknowledged racism in the Catholic Church and suggested measures to combat it. That same year, Lori instituted an initiative for reporting allegations against any bishop in the archdiocese. The policy was drafted by the archdiocesan independent review board.

As of 2023, Lori is the current archbishop of Baltimore.

Plenary councils of Baltimore
The Plenary Councils of Baltimore were three national meetings of American Catholic bishops in the 19th century.
 First Plenary Council (1852) –  The First Council published a decree requiring priests immigrating to the United States to provide letters of reference from their previous bishops before they could practise ministry in this country. The council also passed a requirement that Catholic engaged couples publish marriage banns.
 Second Plenary Council (1866) –  The Second Council advocated the churching of women, a ceremony blessing women after childbirth, and setting age 10 as the age for first communion.
 Third Plenary Council  (1884) –  The Third Council set six holy days of obligation for Catholics and appointed a commission to draft a catechism.

Sexual abuse
In July 1995, John Merzbacher, a teacher at Catholic Community Middle School in south Baltimore,  received four life sentences after being convicted of raping Elizabeth Ann Murphy at the school in the 1970s. At the time, prosecutors also found evidence that Marzbacher sexually abused 13 other male and female students when he taught there. Merzbacher died in prison in May 2023.

In 2016, the archdiocese confirmed that it had paid a total of $472,000 to settlements to 16 former students of Archbishop Keough High School.  The plaintiffs claimed to have been sexually abused as children by Reverend A. Joseph Maskell from 1967 to 1975. After the archdiocese removed Maskell from ministry in 1994, he fled to Ireland. He was never charged with any crimes."

The archdiocese was featured in the 2017 Netflix documentary The Keepers, investigated sexual abuse by clergy at Archbishop Keough High School and the murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik in 1969.

A report released by Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro in August 2018, singled out Cardinal William Keeler for criticism. When Keeler was archbishop of Baltimore, he allowed Reverend Arthur Long to transfer from the Diocese of Harrisburg to the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Long had been accused of sexually abusing children during his time in Harrisburg when Keeler was bishop there . After the grand jury report was released, the archdiocese canceled plans to named a new elementary school after Keeler.

In February 2019, Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh launched an investigation into sexual abuse allegations against the archdiocese. Archbishop Lori provided Frosh with over 50,000 pages of internal documents dating back to 1965.

In March 2019, Lori banned former Auxiliary Bishop Gordon Bennett, then residing in the archdiocese, from practicing any form of ministry in the archdiocese or the suffragan Diocese of Wheeling–Charleston. Bennett had been accused of sexual abuse in 2006. In April 2019, the archdiocese added the names of 23 deceased clergy to a list of accused clergy which the archdiocese published in 2002. Long, a Jesuit, was among those added to the list.

The State of Maryland investigation concluded in November 2022, and its report was released in April 2023. The report named 156 archdiocesan employees and clergy as having credible accusations of sexually abusing more that 600 children between 1940 and 2002. At the same time as the release of the report, the Maryland General Assembly passed a bill to end a statute of limitations on abuse-related civil lawsuits. This bill was signed into law by Governor Wes Moore in April 2023.

In September 2023, the archdiocese formally filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection ahead of the Child Victims Act's effective date of October 1.

Episcopate

Prerogative of place
In 1858, the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith (Propaganda Fide), with the approval of Pius IX, conferred "Prerogative of Place" on the Archdiocese of Baltimore.  This decree gave the archbishop of Baltimore precedence over all other American archbishops in councils, gatherings, and meetings. It did not matter if another archbishop had been elevated sooner or had been serving long.  However, a cardinal still had precedence over the archbishop of Baltimore.

Cathedrals
The first cathedral for the archdiocese was St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral, which is no long standing. Today, unlike all other archdioceses in the United States, the Archdiocese of Baltimore has two cathedrals, both in Baltimore: the Cathedral of Mary Our Queen and the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The archbishop is considered the pastor of both co-cathedrals, appointing rectors to operate them.

St. Peter's Pro-Cathedral
St. Peters served as the base for the archbishop of Baltimore from 1790 to 1821. Since it never met the physical criteria for a proper cathedral and was always considered temporary, St. Peter's was termed a pro-cathedral. The building was razed in 1841.

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary was constructed between 1806 and 1821. It was the first cathedral in the newly independent United States and is considered the mother church of the country. It is a co-cathedral of the archdiocese.

Cathedral of Mary Our Queen
Mary Our Queen was started in 1954 and completed in 1959. It is a co-cathedral of the archdiocese.

Bishops

Prefect Apostolic of the United States
John Carroll (1784–1789), appointed first diocesan bishop with erection of diocese

Bishop of Baltimore
John Carroll (1789–1808), elevated to Archbishop

Archbishops of Baltimore
 John Carroll (1808–1815)
 Leonard Neale (1815–1817; coadjutor archbishop 1795–1815)
 Ambrose Maréchal (1817–1828)
 James Whitfield (1828–1834; coadjutor archbishop 1828)
 Samuel Eccleston (1834–1851; coadjutor archbishop 1834)
 Francis Patrick Kenrick (1851–1863)
 Martin John Spalding (1864–1872)
 James Roosevelt Bayley (1872–1877)
 James Gibbons (1877–1921) (Cardinal in 1886)
 Michael Joseph Curley (1921–1947)
 Francis Patrick Keough (1947–1961)
 Lawrence Shehan (1961–1974; coadjutor archbishop 1961) (Cardinal in 1965)
 William Donald Borders (1974–1989)
 William Henry Keeler (1989–2007) (Cardinal in 1994)
 Edwin Frederick O'Brien (2007–2011), appointed Grand Master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre (Cardinal in 2012)
 William Edward Lori (2012–present)

Current auxiliary bishops
 Adam J. Parker (2017–present)
 Bruce Lewandowski (2020–present)

Former auxiliary bishops
 Alfred Allen Paul Curtis (1897–1908), previously appointed Bishop of Wilmington
 Owen Patrick Bernard Corrigan (1908–1929)
 Thomas Joseph Shahan (1914–1932)
 John Michael McNamara (1927–1947), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Washington
 Lawrence Joseph Shehan (1945–1953), appointed Bishop of Bridgeport; later returned as Coadjutor Archbishop of Baltimore and succeeded to see (see "Archbishops" above); future Cardinal
 Jerome Aloysius Daugherty Sebastian (1953–1960)
 Thomas Austin Murphy (1962–1984)
 Thomas Joseph Mardaga (1966–1968), appointed Bishop of Wilmington
 Francis Joseph Gossman (1968–1975), appointed Bishop of Raleigh
 Philip Francis Murphy (1976–1999)
 James Francis Stafford (1976–1982), appointed Bishop of Memphis and later Archbishop of Denver, President of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, and Major Penitentiary of the Apostolic Penitentiary (elevated to Cardinal in 1998)
 William Clifford Newman (1984–2003)
 John Ricard (1984–1997), appointed Bishop of Pensacola-Tallahassee
 Gordon Dunlap Bennett (1997–2004), appointed Bishop of Mandeville
 William Francis Malooly (2000–2008), appointed Bishop of Wilmington
 Mitchell T. Rozanski (2004–2014), appointed Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts
 Denis J. Madden (2005–2016)
 Mark E. Brennan (2017–2019), appointed Bishop of Wheeling-Charleston

Other diocesan priests who became bishops
 John J. Chanche, appointed Bishop of Natchez in 1841
 Ignatius A. Reynolds, appointed Bishop of Charleston in 1843
 Henry B. Coskery, appointed Bishop of Portland in 1853; did not take effect
 William Henry Elder, appointed Bishop of Natchez in 1857 and Archbishop of Cincinnati in 1883
 Thomas Albert Andrew Becker, appointed Bishop of Wilmington in 1868 and Bishop of Savannah in 1886
 Thomas Patrick Roger Foley, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Chicago in 1870
 John Joseph Keane, appointed Bishop of Richmond in 1878, rector of The Catholic University of America in 1886, and Archbishop of Dubuque in 1900
 Mark Stanislaus Gross, appointed vicar apostolic of North Carolina in 1880; resigned the episcopate
 Jeremiah O'Sullivan, appointed Bishop of Mobile in 1885
 John Samuel Foley, appointed Bishop of Detroit in 1888
 Placide Louis Chapelle, appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Santa Fe in 1891 (succeeded to that see in 1894), Archbishop of New Orleans in 1897 and Apostolic Delegate to Cuba and Extraordinary Envoy to Puerto Rico and the Philippines in 1898
 Patrick James Donahue, appointed Bishop of Wheeling in 1894
 William Thomas Russell, appointed Bishop of Charleston in 1916
 William Joseph Hafey, appointed Bishop of Raleigh in 1925 and Bishop of Scranton in 1938
 Thomas Joseph Toolen, appointed Bishop of Mobile in 1927
 Peter Leo Ireton, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Richmond in 1935 and Bishop of Richmond in 1945
 John Joyce Russell, appointed Bishop of Charleston in 1950 and later Bishop of Richmond in 1958
 Philip Matthew Hannan (priest of this archdiocese, 1939–1947), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Washington in 1956 and Archbishop of New Orleans in 1965
 Michael William Hyle, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Wilmington in 1958 (succeeded to that see in 1960)
 John Selby Spence (priest of this archdiocese, 1933–1947), appointed auxiliary bishop of Washington in 1964
 Edward John Herrmann (priest of this archdiocese, 1947), appointed auxiliary bishop of Washington in 1966 and Bishop of Columbus in 1973
 Victor Benito Galeone, appointed Bishop of Saint Augustine in 2001
 F. Richard Spencer, appointed Auxiliary Bishop for the Military Services, USA in 2010

Priests appointed, but never ordained, as bishops
Dominic Laurence Grässel appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Baltimore in 1793 but the notice arrived after his death

Notable individuals
 Sister Elizabeth Ann Seton - Seton founded the first American congregation of religious sisters, the Sisters of Charity of St. Joseph, in Emmitsburg, Maryland, in 1809. A year later, she opened the first free Catholic school for girls in the United States. In 1975, Seton became the first American-born person to be canonized a saint.
 Mother Mary Lange - Lange opened a free school in her Baltimore home for African American children who were denied access to other schools in the city. In 1828, Lange founded the Oblate Sisters of Providence, the first sustained religious order for African American women in the United States. She also opened what would later become St. Frances Academy, the first Catholic School for African-American children in the United States. In 1991, the Catholic Church opened a cause of sainthood for Lange, naming her a "servant of God."

Education
As of 2023, the Archdiocese of Baltimore had 40 elementary and middle schools and 18 high schools with a total student enrollment of approximately 24,000.

High schools

Churches

Basilica of the National Shrine of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary (old Baltimore Cathedral / Cathedral of the Assumption of Mary) – Baltimore, Maryland
Basilica of the National Shrine of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton – Emmitsburg, Maryland

Media
The archdiocese began to publish its diocesan newspaper, The Baltimore Catholic Review in 1913 as the successor to the earlier diocesan publication The Catholic Mirror, published 1833 to 1908. The name has since been shortened to The Catholic Review.  It changed from weekly to biweekly publication in 2012 and transformed again to a monthly magazine in December 2015.

Ecclesiastical province
When the Archdiocese of Baltimore was erected in 1808, its ecclesiastical province covered the entire nation.  In 1847, with the erected of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the ecclesiastical province of Baltimore shrank. It shrank again with the creation of the Archdioceses of Cincinnati, New Orleans, New York, and the Portland in Oregon in 1850. The province currently contains the following suffragan dioceses:
Diocese of Arlington
Diocese of Richmond
Diocese of Wheeling-Charleston
Diocese of Wilmington

See also

 Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
 List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
 List of Roman Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
 List of Roman Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
 List of Roman Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)
 List of shrines

References

External links

Baltimore
Christianity in Baltimore

Catholic Church in Maryland
Baltimore
Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023
Religious organizations established in 1789
1789 establishments in Maryland

Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore


The Teatro Nacional de São Carlos () (National Theatre of Saint Charles) is an opera house in Lisbon, Portugal. It was opened on June 30, 1793 by Queen Maria I as a replacement for the Tejo Opera House, which was destroyed in the 1755 Lisbon earthquake. The theatre is located in the historical center of Lisbon, in the Chiado district.

History
In 1792, a group of Lisbon businessmen decided to finance the construction of a new Opera House in the city. The theatre was built in only six months following a design by Portuguese architect José da Costa e Silva, with neoclassical and rococo elements. The general project is clearly inspired by great Italian theatres like the San Carlo of Naples (interior) and La Scala in Milan (interior and façade). In the early 19th century, when the Portuguese Royal Court had to flee to the Portuguese colony of Brazil to escape the invading Napoleonic troops, a theatre modelled on the São Carlos was built in Rio de Janeiro.

The theatre was erected in honor of Princess Charlotte of Spain who had been married in 1785 at the age of 10 to the future King, Prince John and resided with him from 1790 once she was of childbearing age: Carlos (Portuguese form of Charles) is the masculine form of Charlotte. A Latin commemorative inscription dedicates the theatre to the princess.

The first opera presented here, in 1793, was La Ballerina Amante, by Domenico Cimarosa. The most famous Portuguese composer of the time, Marcos Portugal, became musical director of the São Carlos in 1800 after returning from Italy, and many of his operas were staged here.

Between 1828 and 1834, the São Carlos was closed during the Portuguese Civil War, fought between kings Miguel I and Pedro IV. In 1850, the lighting of the interior was changed to gas illumination, the latest technology available. Shortly afterwards, the Portuguese state bought the theatre from private investors. After a few failed attempts, electrical illumination was installed in 1887. From 1935 to 1940, the theatre was closed for repairs.

In 1974, a resident opera company was established. In 1993, the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa was created as the Teatro's affiliate orchestra, with Álvaro Cassuto as the orchestra's first principal conductor. Subsequent principal conductors of the Orquestra Sinfónica Portuguesa have included José Ramón Encinar (1999–2001), Zoltán Peskó (2001–2004) and Julia Jones (2008–2011). Since January 2014, the orchestra's principal conductor is Joana Carneiro.

The theatre building was classified as Property of Public Interest in 1928 and has been reclassified as a National Monument since 1996.

Architecture

Longitudinal and composite building with articulated parts has a sober facade. The frontispiece is divided into 3 parts: 2 floors on mezzanine and a third floor on the central body. This central body is torn by a portico (entrance hall), and has a loggia at the ground level composed of 3 frontal arches and a lateral, in perfect round. The loggia is crowned by a perfect terrace of balustrade in stonework. Here, the windows are framed by parastase, that supports a highlighted cornice. They also have a crown composed of panels with inscription and two high reliefs. At the level of the third floor, this same central body presents a clock surrounded by garlands and two windows, all of which is surmounted by two pinnacles and the Portuguese coats-of-arms.At the level of the first floor, the two side bodies have two straight-polished doors crowned by low windows. Although with the same two windows, at the second floor level they feature balustrade in stonework, protruding cornice and a small window in the mezzanine area.

The main room (performance hall) is elliptic, has five tiers of boxes and seats 1148 people. The luxurious royal box was lavishly decorated by the Italian Giovanni Appianni. The ceiling was painted by Manuel da Costa and the stage by Cirilo Wolkmar Machado.

See also
List of theatres and auditoriums in Lisbon

References

External links
Official Teatro Nacional de São Carlos website (in Portuguese)
General Bureau for National Buildings and Monuments (Portugal)

1793 establishments in Portugal
Concert halls in Portugal
Music venues completed in 1793
Opera houses in Portugal
Theatres completed in 1793
Theatres in Lisbon
National monuments in Lisbon District

Teatro Nacional de São Carlos


Dimitrius Paul Underwood (born March 29, 1977) is a former professional American football defensive tackle in the National Football League for the Miami Dolphins, and Dallas Cowboys. He played college football at Michigan State University.

Early years
Underwood was born in Philadelphia on March 29, 1977, the youngest child of Paul, a former insurance salesman, and Eileen, an information specialist at IBM. The family would move to upstate New York, and later to his father's hometown of Fayetteville, North Carolina, after Eileen was laid off from her job.

He attended E.E. Smith High School. As a senior defensive tackle, he posted 87 tackles and 10 sacks, receiving honorable-mention All-state and All-Cape Fear Region honors. He also practiced wrestling, finishing second in his weight class at the 1993 state meet.

College career
Underwood accepted a football scholarship from Michigan State University, to play under head coach Nick Saban. He was a reserve player as a true freshman, appearing in 11 games and making 9 tackles. He became a starter at left defensive end as a sophomore, tallying 37 tackles (8 for loss) and 5 sacks.

As a junior, he started all but one game at left defensive end, recording 57 tackles, 12 tackles for loss (second on the team), 8 sacks (second on the team), 2 forced fumbles, and one fumble recovery. He had 9 tackles (3 for loss), 2 sacks, and one pass defended against Indiana University. He finished the season with 7 tackles, one sack, and 2 forced fumbles in the Aloha Bowl against the University of Washington.

He missed his senior season because of a sprained right ankle injury, although it has been speculated that it was not the real reason.

Professional career

Minnesota Vikings
Underwood was selected by the Minnesota Vikings in the first round (29th overall) of the 1999 NFL Draft, after his stock rose with his pre-draft workouts. On August 1, he signed a five-year, $5.3 million contract with a $1.7 million bonus. He walked out of training camp the next day on August 2, after the first practice. On August 13, he was waived and forfeited a $1.75 million bonus saying he could not resolve the conflict between playing football and serving his Christian faith.

Although he eventually returned, he was released later that month and had to give back his signing bonus to the Vikings.

Miami Dolphins
On August 16, 1999, Underwood was claimed off waivers by the Miami Dolphins as 23 teams passed on him. He was signed for $395,000, then played in only one preseason game before injuring his shoulder, while also showing a lack of focus on football. Multiple times during team meetings, Underwood was found not taking notes, but instead writing about the apocalypse. He only played in the last preseason game against the Green Bay Packers, suffering a dislocated left shoulder.

Although he made the team, he was deactivated for the first 2 games because of his injury. In September, Underwood was arrested by police for failure to pay child support for his 17-month-old twins. Underwood cut his throat and ran down a street in Lansing, Michigan. Following the team's bye week, he was placed on the reserve/non-football injury list on September 28.

Underwood later spent two months in protective care and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After he escaped from a psychiatric care facility, he was released by the Dolphins on December 17.

Dallas Cowboys
On March 10, 2000, he signed a two-year contract with the Dallas Cowboys, who took a chance on him because of the earlier success the team had with Alonzo Spellman, who also suffered from bipolar disorder. He was moved from defensive end to defensive tackle and was a backup player. He collected 23 tackles (one for loss), 4 sacks, and 14 quarterback pressures (led the team).

In January 2001, he tried to kill himself for the second time by running into traffic twice on a busy suburban highway. During the season he appeared in 4 games, making 3 tackles, 2 quarterback pressures, and one pass defended. He was released in October after he missed practices and was admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Ottawa Renegades (CFL)
On May 24, 2005, he resurfaced in the Canadian Football League with the Ottawa Renegades, after four years out of football. However, he was cut during the preseason on June 13.

Struggles with bipolar disorder
Starting in 2002, he served stints in the Dallas County Jail for aggravated robbery on a paraplegic driver, assault on a police officer, and evading arrest. He spent his time in a closed custody cell. In February 2003, Underwood was transferred from Lew Sterrett Justice Center to the North Texas State Hospital in Vernon.

In April 2004, Underwood was arrested for refusing to get out of his stalled car on a highway. He was taken to Parkland Memorial Hospital.

In 2007, Underwood entered the Philadelphia Industrial Correctional Center, and left in February 2011.

Personal life
A few months after Underwood enrolled at Michigan State University, his father died from leukemia at the age of 47.

In 2007, Charles Robinson of Yahoo! Sports listed Underwood as one of the worst first-round picks (at the 29th slot) since the AFL-NFL merger. According to the article, Underwood missed most of his senior year, and his coaches at Michigan State warned NFL scouts that he was not mentally stable enough to play in the NFL. In Robinson's view, by ignoring these warnings, the Vikings made "arguably the dumbest pick ever made in the first round."

In a September 28, 2010 article, Yahoo Sports noted Underwood's mental health issues as a case in point in regard to the NFL falling short in helping players who suffer from various mental illnesses that are in no small part connected to the pressures of the job of an NFL athlete. The 2010 article also pointed out that "Underwood was tormented by visions of the apocalypse. He used to write notes discussing the end of the world on pieces of paper the size of postage stamps. When he was in a normal state, he could be engaging in conversation. He was funny and intelligent. He also exuded physical confidence and had extraordinary talent."

References

External links

1977 births
Living people
Players of American football from Fayetteville, North Carolina
American football defensive ends
Michigan State Spartans football players
Dallas Cowboys players
People with bipolar disorder
American sportspeople convicted of crimes

Dimitrius Underwood


Maria (Mia) Kuryluk (24 December 1917 – 1 January 2001) was a poet, writer, translator, and amateur pianist. She was first married to Teddy Gleich (1912–1946), then to Karol Kuryluk (1910–1967). She was the mother of Ewa Kuryluk and Piotr Kuryluk (1950–2004).

Biography
Maria Kuryluk, called Mia by her family and friends, was born Miriam Kohany in an assimilated Jewish family in Bielsko-Biała, Silesia, and died in Warsaw. She was the eldest daughter of the merchant Herman Kohany (1882–1942) who perished in the Holocaust under unknown circumstances, and Paulina Kohany, née Raaber (1882–1942), a porcelain designer in her youth, who was killed along with her younger daughter Hilde Kohany (1920–1942) in Treblinka. Miriam's older brother Oscar survived the war in the Soviet Union and in 1950 emigrated with his family from Poland to Israel.

Before World War II
All members of the Kohany family were bilingual, fluent in German and Polish, and both parents and their daughters played piano. Miriam Kohany also had a good command of French and Russian, and was an avid reader of poems and novels. Her favorite authors were Goethe, Hölderlin, Kleist, Pushkin and Thomas Mann. After graduating from a Protestant German high school for girls in Bielsko, she held clerical jobs and was involved in the Zionist Youth Movement. She also gave small piano concerts, participated in theatrical performances and was, not unlike her younger sister Hilde, a cinema fan. Miriam greatly admired the actress Erika Mann and became acquainted with her when Mann's famous anti-fascist cabaret Die Pfeffermühle toured Silesia.

World War II
Shortly after World War II started in September 1939, Miriam Kohany fled with her husband and elder brother from Bielsko-Biała to Lvov (today Lviv in the Ukraine) with a group of young people, dispersed on the way. By the time she arrived in Lvov the city had been annexed by the Soviets. Nothing is known about the following two years of Miriam's whereabouts under the Soviet occupation, except that she continued writing poetry. In 1942 Miriam Kohany escaped from the Lvov ghetto and survived, as did her husband Teddy Gleich, on the Aryan side with the help of Karol Kuryluk, a member of the resistance.

While in hiding from 1942 to 1944, Miriam Kohany joined the underground and worked for clandestine news and publishing services. She kept writing poetry, made notes about Heinrich von Kleist and began a novel about her family, disguised as the family of Lena and Robert Buch. In 1944, with the Red Army closing on Lvov, she acted as liaison and ventured into the for-Germans-only parts of the city distributing leaflets calling on Wehrmacht soldiers to desert.

After World War II
In August 1944 Karol Kuryluk became the editor-in-chief of "Odrodzenie" ("The Renaissance"), a cultural magazine first published in Lublin, later in Cracow and Warsaw—and Maria Kuryluk became responsible for the magazine's correspondence, tracking down contributors all over Europe. Her job's difficulty is evidenced by the military censorship stamp on the envelope of André Malraux's letter of 4 August 1945, responding to Maria Kuryluk's request to contribute an excerpt of his novel to "Odrodzenie".

Towards the end of the war Maria Kuryluk switched from writing in German to writing in Polish. Her first book Jędrek i Piotr, a short novel about war orphans she had taken care of in Cracow, was serialized in "Odrodzenie" and published in Warsaw in 1946. Unpublished, however, remained her principle early work, a long wartime memoirs with autobiographical elements entitled Zdzisław Bieliński (): the name of a Lvov doctor who saved Jews along with his wife Zofia Bielińska. Doctor Bieliński was killed in 1945 by radicals of the Polish nationalist underground. The Bieliński couple was later declared as Righteous among the Nations of the World by Yad Vashem, but their heroic deeds became known in detail only recently, when Ewa Kuryluk discovered and published excerpts from her mother's memoirs in her novel Frascati (2009).

In the fall of 1946, soon after the birth of her daughter Ewa in May, the Kielce Pogrom in July, and the sudden and still-unexplained death of Teddy Gleich in August, Maria Kuryluk fell into deep depression and developed schizophrenia. She decided to stay in hiding and to keep her war identity of Maria Grabowska, born in the town of Zbaraż, where her husband Karol Kuryluk was born. In mid-1950s, despite the challenges of raising two young children, and her poor health, she enrolled at the faculty of German at Poznań University, but did not complete her M.A. thesis on Thomas Mann's novels.

In the years 1956–58, when Karol Kuryluk was minister of culture, Mia Kuryluk played a decisive role in bringing Western art and artists to Poland. She hosted Vivien Leigh, Laurence Olivier, Gérard Philipe and Yves Montand at their modest apartment on Frascati Street. In January 1959, when Karol Kuryluk was appointed Polish ambassador to Austria, she moved with her husband and children to Vienna. In Austria her health deteriorated and she was repeatedly confined to a psychiatric clinic. Yet she still pursued her literary and artistic interests, reestablished contact with Erika Mann, befriended the writer and pacifist Adrienne Thomas, and translated poetry by Erich Fried, Ingeborg Bachmann, Thomas Bernhard.

After her husband's sudden death in 1967 Mia Kuryluk supplemented her meager pension by giving private German and French lessons, working as librarian at the Austrian Institute in Warsaw, and advising Polish publishers on contemporary German and Austrian literature. She continued translating Austrian and German poetry until her death.

Mia Kuryluk is buried with her husband Karol and her son Piotr at the Warsaw Powązki Cemetery in a tomb designed by Ewa Kuryluk.

Literary work
Maria Kuryluk's short stories, journalism and translations into Polish were published in the magazines "Odrodzenie", "Nowa Kultura" and "Zeszyty Literackie". Miriam Kohany's writings in German, an impressive amount of prose fragments and over one hundred poems written before and during World War II, constitute a tragic testimony of a hidden life. This body of work was only recently rediscovered by Ewa Kuryluk, and still remains to be published. Miriam Kohany's earliest poems go back to 1936. Some deal with love and the beauty of nature. Most address, however, philosophical and political themes, and their mood is dark. Hitler, the Führer, is called the terrible Verführer (seducer) of the German people, and the future is foreboding.

Ewa Kuryluk has commemorated her mother in her autobiographical novels Goldi (2004) and Frascati (2009), and in her textile installations Yellow Birds Fly (2001), Taboo (2005) and Triptych on Yellow Background (2010).

References

 Maria Kuryluk, Jędrek i Piotr, Warsaw, 1946.
 Maria Kuryluk, Zdzisław Bieliński, ca. 1946, excerpts published in Ewa Kuryluk, Frascati, Cracow, 2009, pp. 176–184.
 Tadeusz Breza, "Wspomnienie o Karolu", in Nelly, Warsaw, 1970.
 Maria Dąbrowska, Dzienniki. 1914–1965, Warsaw, 2009.
 Anna Kowalska, Dzienniki 1927–1969, Warsaw, 2008.
 Ewa Kuryluk, Ludzie z powietrza—Air People, Cracow, 2002.
 Ewa Kuryluk, Goldi, Warsaw, 2004; second edition Cracow 2011.
 Ewa Kuryluk, Kangór z kamerą—Kangaroo with the Camera, Cracow and Warsaw, 2009.
 Ewa Kuryluk's website

External links
 Yad Vashem's web site
 Ewa Kuryluk's web site
 Ewa Kuryluk, Goldi, Warsaw, 2004
 Kuryluk Ewa Kuryluk
 an article about Ewa Kuryluk by Małgorzata Kitowska-Łysiak
 Historical article about Karol Kuryluk by his daughter Ewa.
 A Wikipedia page about Lvov
 The Powązki Cemetery in Warsaw
 An interview with Ewa Kuryluk about her parents and family.
 The Museum of the History of Polish Jews' web page with English translations of Maria Kuryluk's memoirs about the Bielinski family rescuing Jews during the German occupation of Lvov.

Picture gallery

1917 births
2001 deaths
Polish women writers
20th-century Polish women
20th-century Polish writers
20th-century Polish Jews
Burials at Powązki Cemetery
People from Biała

Maria Kuryluk


Selaginella densa is a species of spikemoss known by the common names lesser spikemoss, prairie spikemoss, and Rocky Mountains spikemoss. It is native to western North America, where it can be found from Alaska to Ontario, the Dakotas, Texas and far northern California.

It grows in many types of habitat, from grassland to the alpine climates of high mountains, in rocky and sandy areas. It is a dominant plant in many types of prairie on the Great Plains, especially shortgrass prairie, where it grows alongside dominant grasses. It grows in windy, exposed, snow-free rock outcrops on mountain peaks in several ranges, including the Cascade Range and the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. It is most common on dry soils in open areas, tolerating desiccation relatively easily.

This lycophyte forms mats or cushions of creeping stems which fork into small, upright branches. The green, linear or lance-shaped leaves are up to 5 millimeters long including the short, soft bristles on the tips. They are flattened to the stem. The strobili at the ends of the stems can be up to 3 or 4 centimeters long.

This compact groundcover plant protects the soil from erosion and can be used in landscaping for that purpose.

References

External links
USDA Plants Profile
Flora of North America
Photo gallery

densa
Alpine flora
Flora of the United States
Flora of the Western United States
Flora of the Rocky Mountains
Flora of California
Flora of the Cascade Range
Flora of the Klamath Mountains

Selaginella densa


Captain Harry Godfrey Massy-Miles  (1886 – 26 April 1918) was a British Army medical officer who was awarded the Military Cross for valour in the First World War.

Family
He was the son of Revd. Joseph Henry Miles, and Adelaide Mary Louisa Massy. He was educated at Bloxham School from 1900 to 1903, and later studied medicine at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland, where he achieved his LRCP.

He was married on 3 July 1911 at Zion Church, Rathgar, Dublin to Charlotte Elizabeth Josephine Ingle, eldest daughter of A. F. Ingle (Superintendent of Indian Post Offices), and Mrs. Ingle of 24 Grosvenor Place, Rathmines, Dublin.

Military career
He was assigned to the Royal Army Medical Corps and appointed a temporary Lieutenant on 21 December 1914. He was then joined to the 8th London Regiment Post Office Rifles, 58th Division.

He was awarded the Military Cross. During several days of severe fighting he kept in close touch with the battalion, working unceasingly without rest during the whole period, dressing the wounded including the French. He showed great initiative in establishing forward regimental aid posts, reconnoitring their sites beforehand under heavy hostile shell fire, thus greatly assisting the rapid evacuation of casualties. His courage and cheerfulness throughout a period of great strain were beyond praise.

He was at his Regimental Aid Post when he heard that a gas shell had burst on the Battalion H.Q. at Villers-Bretonneux, had pierced the roof, and penetrated into the cellar. He at once went to attend the cases and, when he had finished, returned to his post. Later, he complained of feeling ill and lay down. On getting worse, he was removed to the 8th General Hospital at Rouen where he died on 26 April 1918. His colonel wrote to his old school: "Captain Massy Miles was with this division for a long time, and was one of my ablest and most gallant officers. He did splendid work during the retirement in March, and was awarded the Military Cross for his gallant work. We all deplore his loss deeply, and I lose a valued friend and trusty officer." R.I.P.

He is buried in the St Sever Cemetery, Rouen.

A prize was established in his memory by his widow at the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland.

References

1886 births
1918 deaths
Royal Army Medical Corps officers
Recipients of the Military Cross
People educated at Bloxham School
British Army personnel of World War I
British military personnel killed in World War I
Burials in France

Harry Godfrey Massy-Miles