Pittsburgh, Diocese of (PITTSBURG, DIOCESI DI) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. IX, p. 957

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

PITTSBURG, DIOCESI di. – City and diocese in the State of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. The diocese of P., suffragan of Philadelphia, today covers a territory of 7,238 square miles and has a total population (1950 census) of 2,799,675 inhabitants, of whom 832,745 are Catholics (1951). There are 1,020 priests, of whom 262 are religious belonging to 9 different congregations, 416 parishes, 267 chapels, 65 missions, 44 women’s congregations with 4,612 religious, 4 colleges and universities (Duquesne University, directed by the Fathers of the Holy Spirit), 4 orphanages, 10 hospitals, and 5 homes for the elderly.

Article illustration — PITTSBURG, DIOCESI di – View of the city and, in the foreground, the Institute for Industrial Research.

It is highly probable that the Jesuit Bonnecamp conducted the first religious service for the white population of the diocese in 1749. The city of P. was so named in honor of William Pitt, Prime Minister of England, when the British army took possession of Fort Duquesne in 1758; it was subsequently called Fort Pitt or P. After the French had abandoned the territory, the Catholic religion had almost no followers in western Pennsylvania for approximately 30 years, and the Catholics who settled there were opposed by the Calvinists.

The first church in P., still known today as “Old St. Patrick’s,” was opened in Aug. 1811. As early as 1825, Bishop Benedetto Giuseppe Flaget regarded P. as the seat of a future diocese, but it was only in 1836 that Bishop Francesco P. Kenrick proposed the division of the diocese of Philadelphia. In Jan. 1836, the Rev. Giovanni Hughes was appointed bishop of the new see of P., but shortly afterward Rome annulled the appointment. On 14 May 1843, following the division of Philadelphia, the Fifth Provincial Council of Baltimore again proposed to the Holy See the erection of the diocese of P. By the brief Universi Dominici gregis, Gregory XVI erected P. for the western part of Pennsylvania (8 Aug. 1843); Bishop Michele O’Connor was the first bishop, consecrated in Rome on 15 Aug., and took possession on 3 Dec. of the same year. After carrying out extensive activity in the diocese, he entered the Society of Jesus; he founded a diocesan seminary and summoned the Oblates of Mary Immaculate from Canada to direct it, but remained there only a short time. In 1852 the diocese was so prosperous that its division was considered. The First Plenary Council of Baltimore, convened on 9 May 1852, made this proposal to Rome. Indeed, on 29 July 1852, the diocese of Erie was erected. P. was then reduced to 11,314 square miles. Under Bishop M. Domenec, the successor of Bishop O’Connor, the diocese was again divided to form the diocese of Allegheny City, but only for a short time, because that see was suppressed. In 1901 the Holy See erected the diocese of Altoona by dividing P. and Harrisburg.

BIBL.: R. Canarin, s. V. in Cath. Enc., XII, pp. 171-26; J. G. Shea, History of the Catholic Church in the United States, III, New York 1890, p. 576; IV, there 1892, pp. 65-80; The Official Catholic directory, there 1950, pp. 462-72.

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