SCRANTON, DIOCESI di. — Diocese and city in the State of Pennsylvania (U.S.A.).
In 1868 several dioceses were created in the United States. Apostolic vicariates were erected in Arizona, Utah and Colorado, and Idaho. North Carolina was detached from Charleston and constituted as an apostolic vicariate; Marysville was changed to Grass Valley, Rochester was detached from New York, and Wilmington was erected for Delaware and part of Maryland and Virginia; Harrisburg, S., Columbus, Green Bay, La Crosse and St. Joseph were raised to dioceses. The year 1868 marks a historic moment in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States.
S. is a thriving city and the center of coal-mining operations. The first Catholics to settle there were Germans and Irish who worked in the mines; Slavs and Italians came later.
The first official visit by a priest dates to 1787. Giacomo Pellentz went as far as Elmira on the Susquehanna River, and a few years later a small French village was founded at Azilum (1793–94), today Standing-stone. It was intended to serve as a refuge for the French nobility expelled from France by the Revolution. But the first permanent village was established at Friedsville. From time to time priests came from Philadelphia. In 1825 Giovanni O'Flynn became the first resident priest, and the first church was opened near Silvester Lake. In 1868 S. was raised to a diocese, with Msgr. William O'Hara as its first bishop, consecrated on 12 July of the same year. The diocese then had 50 churches and 25 priests. Today there are 434 priests (101 religious from 8 different congregations) and 231 parishes, 108 chapels, 73 missions and 17 stations, serving a total population of 1,047,290 inhabitants, including 345,037 Catholics, spread over a territory of 8,847 miles. There are also 16 women’s congregations, 78 seminarians, 1 scholastic, 1 university (S. University, directed by the Jesuits), 3 colleges, 5 orphanages and 6 hospitals.