BALTIMORE, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - A metropolitan see of the United States of America, it was for the country almost the cradle of Catholicism and the center of ecclesiastical organization. For this reason the Holy See conferred on it in 1858 preeminence 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 passed under the jurisdiction of the vicar apostolic of London, represented by a vicar general. After the constitution of the American colonies as a federal republic independent of England (4 July 1776), the Congregation of Propaganda negotiated to establish the ecclesiastical hierarchy in the United States, until on 6 Nov. 1789, acceding to the wishes of the clergy of the country, Pius VI erected B. as a diocese immediately subject, appointing as its first bishop the missionary John Carroll, 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 and also the territories that had not yet been constituted as states. Thus, following the annexation of Louisiana to the United States (30 Apr. 1803), the diocese of Louisiana and of the two Floridas passed under the jurisdiction of the bishop of B.
(Int. U.S.)
On 8 Apr. 1808 Pius VII, by the brief Pontificii muneris, elevated B. to a metropolitan see, assigning to it as suffragans the four new dioceses of New York, Philadelphia, Boston and Bardstown (today Louisville, Kentucky). Other divisions followed, but the most important took place with the detachment from B. of the city of Washington and the District of Columbia, which formed the immediately subject archdiocese of Washington (constitution Supremae, 22 July 1939), at first united with that of B., then separated on 15 Nov. 1947 by the apostolic constitution Universi Dominici gregis (AAS, 40 [1948], p. 100).
The sole metropolitan see of the American republic until the erection of St. Louis as an archbishopric (20 July 1847), B. subsequently saw the birth of no fewer than 19 other ecclesiastical provinces and presently has as suffragans the dioceses of Charleston, Raleigh, Richmond, St. Augustine, Savannah-Atlanta, Wheeling and Wilmington.
The Church in the United States owes the greater part of its development, its organization and its present legislation to the bishops (especially the first two) and to the Councils of B. The first diocesan synod took place in 1791. In 1829 the series of provincial councils was inaugurated, succeeding one another almost every three years until 1869. There were 10 of them, but only the first 7 are considered plenary (1829-49), since the first plenary Council held in 1852 recognized them as such. In 1866 the second plenary Council was held and in 1884 the third and last, under the presidency of the celebrated archbishop Gibbons. - See Table XLIX.
