NEW ORLEANS, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese in the United States of America.
It has an area of 13,090 square miles with 1,247,894 inhabitants (1951), of whom 483,028 are Catholics (1951), entrusted to the care of 513 priests, among whom 303 are religious of 15 different congregations. It contains 159 parishes, 98 missions, 16 stations, 1 diocesan seminary, 2 religious seminaries, 4 colleges and universities (Loyola University in New Orleans and Xavier University for the colored population), 4 general hospitals and 2 specialized hospitals and sanatoria.
The diocese of New Orleans was erected on April 25, 1793 and elevated to an archdiocese on July 19, 1850. Its history is very ancient. The first explorers de Soto, d'Iberville, La Salle, Bienville were accompanied by missionaries; the territory was at first under the jurisdiction of the bishop of Québec (Canada) and in 1696 the superior of the missions sent by the Seminary of Québec was appointed vicar general there. Because of the distance of that territory from Québec, Msgr. de Saint-Vallier obtained from the Holy See the Capuchin L. Fr. Duplessy de Mornay as coadjutor in 1714 and appointed him vicar general for Louisiana. Msgr. de Mornay however never went to the United States, but in 1722 entrusted the spiritual care of the natives to the Jesuits, who worked there successfully until 1763, when they were suppressed in Louisiana. In the same year Louisiana was transferred to Spain and the province passed under the authority of the bishop of Santiago de Cuba; the latter asked for an auxiliary, who was consecrated in 1781 and had jurisdiction over Louisiana and Florida. Another change occurred in 1787: the see of Santiago de Cuba was divided and the diocese of St. Christopher of Havana, Louisiana and the Floridas was created. Msgr. Cirillo of Barcelona, auxiliary, was charged by the Holy See with erecting Louisiana and the two Floridas into a diocese, and a decree to that effect was issued on April 8, 1793. A new diocese was founded at New Orleans with Msgr. Luis Penalver y Cardenas as first bishop.
The territory was given to France in 1800 and then sold to the United States of America in 1803 by Napoleon Bonaparte. In 1806 the Congr. of Propaganda entrusted Louisiana to the diocese of Baltimore, whose bishop was appointed apostolic administrator. Msgr. L. Dubourg, appointed administrator on September 18, 1818, following the cession of Florida to the U.S. by Spain, was able to exercise his jurisdiction over the entire territory.
The diocese was then subdivided several times: on May 29, 1825 the apostolic vicariate of Alabama and Florida was constituted; July 18, 1826 marked the foundation of St. Louis, and on July 18, 1850 Pius X elevated New Orleans to an archdiocese with the suffragan dioceses of Mobile, Natchez, Little Rock and Galveston. Today's ecclesiastical province comprises the dioceses of Alexandria and Lafayette in Louisiana, Little Rock in Arkansas, Mobile in Alabama and Natchez in Mississippi.