DETROIT, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - In the State of Michigan in the United States of America. Its territory of about 13,800 sq km comprises the counties of Lapeer, Lenawee, Macomb, Monroe, Oakland, St. Clair, Washtenaw and Wayne, in the southeast of Michigan, and it has as suffragans the dioceses of the same state, namely: Grand Rapids, Marquette, Lansing and Saginaw. In 1948, out of a population of more than 3,113,503 inhabitants, the archdiocese counted about 900,000 Catholics, under the direction of 563 diocesan priests and 281 regulars, with 226 parishes, 60 chapels, 16 missions, 2 diocesan seminaries, one university, 5 colleges, 63 high schools, 164 parochial schools.
Christianity was introduced into Michigan as early as 1642 through the work of Jesuit missionaries from Canada. In 1671 the first chapel for whites was built at St. Ignatius; in 1688, when France had officially taken possession of it, Fort St. Joseph was built at D., where in 1700
Lamothe-Cadillac brought a certain number of Canadian-French families. On July 26, 1701, the Franciscan Costantino de l'Halle blessed there the church of St. Anne, which is the mother church of the region and whose parish registers, contrary to the other ancient parishes of the United States, are still intact. It was officiated first by the Franciscans, then by the Sulpicians, remaining under English rule, and under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Quebec, until 1796. In that year, because of political changes, D. passed under the dependence of the bishop of Baltimore, who entrusted the care of souls to the French Sulpicians, given the nationality of the faithful. At that time the parish of D. comprised all of Michigan and most of Wisconsin, so that under the American regime the first parish priest, G. Richard, became the organizer of the church in these regions and co-founder of the University of Michigan.
He was indeed the first and only priest elected deputy to Congress (for Michigan in 1823). But meanwhile D., since 1822, had passed from the diocese of Bardstown (Louisville) to the new diocese of Cincinnati, until on March 8, 1833, it was created a suffragan diocese of Baltimore for the entire territory of Michigan. The first bishop was Msgr. Federico Rese. Subsequently, from D. were formed the dioceses of Milwaukee (1844), of Sault Ste-Marie and Marquette (1857), of Grand Rapids (1882), of Lansing (1937), of Marquette (1937) and of Saginaw (1938). On May 22, 1937, D. was elevated to a metropolitan see.
The archdiocese currently has a great number of Polish parishes and some Italian ones.
Bibliography9 works
Corrado Morin