Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville

Archdiocese of Louisville Archidioecesis Ludovicopolitana
Location
Country	United States
Territory	Central Kentucky
Ecclesiastical province	Archdiocese of Louisville
Metropolitan	Louisville, Kentucky
Statistics
Population - Total	200,000
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	April 8, 1808
Cathedral	Cathedral of the Assumption
Patron saint	Saint Joseph Joseph the Betrothed Joseph the Worker
Current leadership
Pope	Benedict XVI
Archbishop	Joseph Edward Kurtz Archbishop of Louisville
Map
Website
archlou.org

Cathedral of the Assumption in Louisville

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville consists of twenty-four counties in Central Kentucky, USA, covering 8,124 square miles (21,040 km²). It is the seat of the Metropolitan Province of Louisville, which comprises the states of Kentucky and Tennessee. The cathedral church of the archdiocese is the Cathedral of the Assumption.

Statistics

The archdiocese contains 200,000 Catholics in 66,000 households, served by one hundred twenty-two parishes and missions. One half of all Catholics in the Commonwealth reside within the bounds of the Archdiocese of Louisville, and seventy-nine percent of all Catholics in the archdiocese (forty percent of all Catholics in the Commonwealth) reside in the Louisville Metro area. There are fifty-nine Catholic elementary and high schools serving more than 23,400 students. The archdiocese is home to one hundred sixty-six diocesan priests, one hundred twelve permanent deacons, fifty-two religious order priests, seventy-seven religious brothers, and nine hundred forty-four religious sisters. The archdiocese serves more than 220,000 persons in Catholic hospitals, health care centers, homes for the aged and specialized homes. Services, Mother-Infant Care Program, Senior Social Services, and Rural Ministries Services.

St. Joseph Proto-Cathedral

History

The diocese began in 1808 when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Bardstown was established along with the dioceses of Boston, New York, and Philadelphia out of the territory of the Baltimore Diocese, the first Catholic diocese in the US. Pope Benedict XVI's visit to the US in April 2008 celebrated the 200th anniversary of the creation of these dioceses and the elevation of Baltimore to an archdiocese. When founded, the Bardstown Diocese included most of Kentucky, Tennessee, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan.

While Louisville is the oldest inland diocese in the United States, it is not the oldest west of the Appalachians. That distinction belongs to the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans founded under Spanish rule in 1793.

Benedict Joseph Flaget was the first Bishop of Bardstown. The historic Basilica of Saint Joseph Proto-Cathedral, the former cathedral of the Diocese of Bardstown, is now a parish church.

While the French may have had initial influence in the formation of the Catholic community in the Louisville area, eventually immigrants from Germany comprised the bulk of the Archdiocese's communicant strength later in the mid-19th century, particularly in the city of Louisville. However, much of the Catholic population in areas southeast of Louisville is of English extraction, consisting of descendants of recusants who originally settled in Maryland in colonial times.

In 1841, the diocese was moved from Bardstown to Louisville, becoming the Diocese of Louisville. The Diocese of Louisville was elevated in 1937 to become the Archdiocese of Louisville, and the metropolitan province for all the dioceses in Kentucky and Tennessee. There are currently three deaneries: Elizabethtown, Lebanon, and Bardstown.

Archbishops and Bishops

Bishops

• Benedict Joseph Flaget P.S.S. (1808–1832) resigned
• John Baptist Mary David P.S.S. (1832–1833) succeeded
• Benedict Joseph Flaget P.S.S. (1833–1850) died
• Martin John Spalding (1850–1864) appointed Archbishop of Baltimore
• Peter Joseph Lavialle (1865–1867) died
• William George McCloskey (1868–1909) died
• Denis O'Donaghue (1910–1924) Retired
• John Alexander Floersh (1924–1937) elevated to Archbishop

Archbishops

• John Alexander Floersh (1937–1967) retired
• Thomas Joseph McDonough (1967–1981) resigned
• Thomas Cajetan Kelly O.P (1981–2007) (Retired)
• Joseph Edward Kurtz since 2007

Past and Present Affiliated Bishops

• Bishop James Kendrick Williams (b. 1936), Bishop Emeritus of Lexington
• Bishop Guy Ignatius Chabrat P.S.S. (1787–1868), Coadjuctor Bishop of Bardstown (1834–1847)
• Archbishop Michael Heiss (1818–1890), Archbishop of Milwaukee (1881–1890)
• Bishop Charles Garrett Maloney (1912–2006), Auxiliary Bishop of Louisville (1954–1988)
• Bishop John McGill (1809–1872), Bishop of Richmond (1850–1872)
• Bishop James Ryan (1848–1923), Bishop of Alton (1888–1923)
• Bishop John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916), Bishop of Peoria (1876–1908)

Archbishop Kelly

The Most Reverend Thomas C. Kelly, O.P. was the ninth ordinary and third Archbishop and first member of the Dominican Order to head the Archdiocese of Louisville. He succeeded Archbishops Thomas J. McDonough (1967-1981) and John A. Floersh (1937-1967).

Education

High schools

Nine Catholic secondary schools serve more than 6,300 students. Eight of the schools are located in Jefferson County and one in Nelson County. Four of the schools enroll only girls, three enroll only boys, and two are coeducational.^[1]

Boys

• St. Francis DeSales High School, Louisville
• St. Xavier High School, Louisville
• Trinity High School, St. Matthews

Girls

• Assumption High School, Louisville
• Mercy Academy, Louisville
• Presentation Academy, Louisville
• Sacred Heart Academy, Louisville

Coeducational

• Bethlehem High School, Bardstown
• Holy Cross High School, Louisville

Elementary schools

Forty Catholic parish, regional and special elementary schools serve more than 15,500 students in seven counties of the Archdiocese of Louisville.^[2]

• Saint Mary Academy, began in 2007 as a merger of Mother of Good Counsel Elementary School and Immaculate Conception School^[3]

Metropolitan Province of Louisville

The Cathedra of the Archbishop of Louisville

See also: List of the Catholic bishops of the United States#Province of Louisville

The Metropolitan Province of Louisville covers the states of Kentucky and Tennessee, and comprises the following dioceses:

• Archdiocese of Louisville
• Diocese of Covington
• Diocese of Knoxville
• Diocese of Lexington
• Diocese of Memphis
• Diocese of Nashville
• Diocese of Owensboro

Notable figures in the history of the archdiocese

• Thomas Merton (January 31, 1915 – December 10, 1968) – American Trappist monk and author, famed for his work in Buddhist-Christian relations. Entered the Abbey of Gethsemani in the Archdiocese of Louisville in 1941.
• Bishop Benedict Joseph Flaget (1763–1850) was the first and only Bishop of Bardstown and the first Bishop of Louisville. Invariably called "the saintly Flaget," Bishop Flaget served as bishop from 1810 until his death in 1850.
• Father Stephen T. Badin (1768–1853) – The "circuit rider priest." Served the area that would become the Diocese of Bardstown (and later the Archdiocese of Louisville.) The first priest to be ordained in the United States, Father Badin was known as overly strict but zealous.
• Father John L. Spalding (1840–1916) helped found Catholic University in Washington, D.C., and was called the "Catholic Emerson" because of his many books of essays. Father Spalding later became the Bishop of Peoria, Illinois.
• Father James C. Maloney (1911–1998) – founded Boys’ Haven in Louisville in 1948. His brother is Bishop Charles Maloney.
• Monsignor Alfred F. Horrigan (1914–2005) was the founding president of Bellarmine College, now Bellarmine University. He also headed the city’s Human Relations commission and was a friend of Thomas Merton.

Notes

1. ^ "Archdiocese of Louisville: High Schools". Archdiocese of Louisville. Archived from the original on 2008-06-04. http://web.archive.org/web/20080604160308/http://www.archlou.org/HighSchool. 
2. ^ "Archdiocese of Louisville: Elementary Schools". Archdiocese of Louisville. Archived from the original on 2007-11-03. http://web.archive.org/web/20071103214758/http://www.archlou.org/Elementary. 
3. ^ Saint Mary Academy

External links

• The Archdiocese of Louisville
• The Cathedral of the Assumption
• 1910 Catholic Encyclopedia Article on the Diocese of Louisville

Coordinates: 38°14′34″N 85°45′07″W / 38.24278°N 85.75194°W / 38.24278; -85.75194