SYRACUSE, Diocese of. – A city and diocese of the State of New York (United States). The diocese was erected by Leo XIII on 20 November 1886. The history of Syracuse dates back to 1614, when the Franciscans (Recollects) obtained permission from Samuel de Champlain to celebrate the divine Sacrifice near the Onondaga or Oneida lakes for the Iroquois and perhaps also near present-day Oswego in 1615.
The Jesuit Father Le Moyne is the true founder of the Church of Syracuse. Fathers Joseph Chaumont and Claude Dablon began the evangelization of the region and celebrated Mass on 4 November 1654, but with little success. The indigenous peoples were incited against the Franciscans by the English and the Dutch of Albany. In 1685, James II ascended the throne and professed Catholicism. As Duke of York (1682), he had appointed Thomas Dongan governor of New York, who greatly assisted the Catholics, but to avoid strengthening French influence, he requested English Jesuit fathers. With the fall of Dongan, Governor Bellemont had a law passed according to which all priests remaining or returning to the State of New York after 10 November 1700 would be imprisoned in perpetuity. Less than 25 years later, white settlers began to arrive in the territory, among them several Catholics. The first parish of the diocese was founded by the Rev. Michael O’Gorman. The first public Mass was celebrated in Utica on 10 January 1819. At the foundation of the diocese, Syracuse had 64 diocesan priests and 10 religious, 46 parishes, 20 missions, 15 chapels, and two hospitals. Today there are 349 priests (66 religious: Conventuals, members of the Pia Società delle Missioni di S. Carlo of Piacenza, Jesuits), 183 parishes, 86 chapels, 13 stations, 15 female congregations (811 sisters), 1 school (67 religious), 1 college (Le Moyne, run by the Jesuits), 6 orphanages, and 4 hospitals. The total population of Syracuse, a suffragan of New York, is (as of 1950) 947,427 inhabitants, of whom 269,441 are Catholics.