BALTIMORA, ARCHDIOCESE of. — The metropolitan see of the United States of America, it was for the country almost the cradle of Catholicism and the centre of ecclesiastical organization. For this reason the Holy See granted it, in 1858, precedence over all the other archdioceses of the North American republic. Its territory presently extends over 4,801 sq. km., with a Catholic population of 265,394 inhabitants, out of a total of 1,409,694. It has 116 parishes, 254 diocesan priests, and 327 religious.
Under the colonial regime (1634–1776), the Catholics of the English possessions in America at first depended on English archpriests; then, on 6 Nov. 1665, they came under the jurisdiction of the apostolic vicar of London, represented by a vicar general. After the American colonies were constituted as a federal republic independent of England (4 July 1776), the Sacred Congregation of Propaganda negotiated to establish the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the United States, until, on 6 Nov. 1789, accepting the wishes of the country’s clergy, Pius VI erected B. as an immediately subject diocese, appointing as its first bishop the missionary Giovanni Carrol, a personal friend of Franklin.
The diocese then comprised not only Maryland and the District of Columbia, but all the federal States of the American republic, as well as the territories not yet constituted as States. Thus, following the annexation of Louisiana to the United States (30 Apr. 1803), the diocese of Louisiana and the two Floridas passed under the jurisdiction of the bishop of B.
