SCRANTON, DIOCESE OF. - 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, Idaho. North Carolina was detached from Charleston and constituted an apostolic vicariate; Marysville was changed to Grass Valley, Rochester was detached from New York, Wilmington was erected for Delaware and part of Maryland and Virginia; Harrisburg, Columbus (Ohio), Green Bay, La Crosse and St. Joseph were elevated to dioceses. The year 1868 marks a historic moment in the affairs of the Catholic Church in the United States.
Scranton is a flourishing city and the center of coal mining. The first Catholics to settle there were Germans and Irish who worked in the mines; later came Slavs and Italians.
The first official visit of a priest dates back to 1787. Giacomo Pellentz came as far as Elmira on the Susquehanna River, and a few years later a small French village was founded at Azilum (1793-94), now Standing-stone. It was intended as a retreat for French nobility expelled from France by the Revolution. But the first permanent village was established at Friedsville. Priests came from time to time from Philadelphia. In 1825 Giovanni O'Flynn was the first resident priest and the first church was opened near Silvester Lake. In 1868 Scranton was elevated to a diocese with Msgr. William O'Hara as its first bishop, consecrated on 12 July of the same year. At that time the diocese 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 for a total population of 1,047,290 and 345,037 Catholics spread over a territory of 8,847 square miles. There are also 16 female congregations, 78 seminarians, 1 scholastic, 1 university (Scranton University run by the Jesuits), 3 colleges, 5 orphanages and 6 hospitals.