Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockville Centre

During the Dutch and British rule of the Province of New York in the 17th and 18th centuries, Catholics were banned from the colony.[4] Richard Coote, the first colonial governor, passed a law at the end of the 17th century that mandated a life sentence to any Catholic priest. The penalty for harboring a Catholic was a £250 fine plus three days in the pillory. In 1763, Catholic Bishop Richard Challoner of London stated that:

“...in New York, one may find a Catholic here and there, but they have no opportunity of practicing their religion as no priest visits them, and … there is not much likelihood that Catholic priests will be permitted to enter these provinces."[4]

After the approval of the New York Constitution in 1777, freedom of worship for Catholics was guaranteed. This was soon followed by the same guarantee in the US Constitution.

In 1784, Pope Pius VI erected the Apostolic Prefecture of United States of America, including all of the new United States. In 1789, the same pope raised this prefecture to the Diocese of Baltimore.[5] Pope Pius VII in 1808 erected the Diocese of New York, taking all of New York State from the Diocese of Baltimore.[6]

Catholic priests started appearing in Long Island in the mid-19th century, founding missions and parishes. The first Catholic Church in Nassau County was St. Brigid in Westbury, founded in 1840.[7] The first resident priest in Suffolk County arrived in Sag Harbor in 1852 to provide support to Irish Catholic families working on the railroads.[8]

The Diocese of Brooklyn was erected by Pope Pius IX in 1853 with territory from the Archdiocese of New York.[9] All of Long Island would remain part of the new diocese for the next 104 years.

Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Rockville Centre on April 6, 1957, taking Nassau and Suffolk counties from the Diocese of Brooklyn.[10] The pope named Bishop Walter P. Kellenberg of the Diocese of Ogdensburg as the first bishop of the new diocese.[11] St. Agnes Cathedral was designated as the diocesan cathedral. Kellenberg founded the diocese's Catholic Charities office in 1957.[12] He resigned in 1976.

Kellenberg was followed by Auxiliary Bishop John McGann, named by Pope Paul VI in 1976.[13] In 1984, the diocese closed its minor seminary, St. Pius X Preparatory, in Uniondale. Pope John Paul II in 1999 appointed Bishop James T. McHugh from the Diocese of Camden as a coadjutor bishop in Rockville Centre to assist McGann.[14]

After McGann retired in January 2000, McHugh automatically succeeded him as bishop. However, only 11 months later, McHugh died in December 2000. John Paul II then appointed Auxiliary Bishop William Murphy of the Archdiocese of Boston as the next bishop of Rockville Centre.[15]

Soon after Murphy's installation as bishop in 2001, he decided that his private quarters in the cathedral rectory were inadequate. He complained that they lacked privacy and sufficient space to entertain visiting clergy. Murphy decided to use the top floor of an old convent building at the cathedral for a new apartment. The diocese had been planning to create rooms for nuns on that floor, but Murphy asked them to accept different accommodations. The Murphy apartment ended up costing the diocese $800,000.[16] As news of the project cost became public, Murphy invited a Newsday reporter and photographer to tour the apartment. They reported that it included a large suite with a new fireplace with an oak mantel, a temperature-controlled wine storage cabinet, and a marble floored bathroom.[16]

In 2003, 52 priests requested a meeting with Murphy. In a letter, the priests spoke of anger and dissatisfaction within the diocese and "a certain lack of confidence in your pastoral leadership." They also complained about Murphy's management style, the cost of his new apartment, the sexual abuse scandal in Boston[17] and his ban against Long Island Voice of the Faithful.[18]

In 2011, Murphy announced the closing of six elementary schools in the diocese:

• St. John Baptist de La Salle Regional School in Farmingdale
• St. Catherine of Sienna School in Franklin Square
• St. Ignatius Loyola School in Hicksville
• Sacred Heart School in North Merrick
• Our Lady of Perpetual Help School in Lindenhurst
• Prince of Peace Regional School in Sayville[19]

In 2012, the Archdiocese of New York and the Dioceses of Brooklyn and Rockville Centre merged all their seminary programs.

• The minor seminary program was designated as the Cathedral Seminary House of Formation in Queens
• The major seminary program was set at St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers. As a result, the Seminary of the Immaculate Conception in Lloyd Harbor closed that year.

Murphy retired in 2016. The current bishop of the Diocese of Rockville Centre is John Barres, the former bishop of the Diocese of Allentown. He was appointed by Pope Francis in January 2017.[20]

In October 2017, Barres announced the creation of the Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program (IRCP) for survivors of acts of child sexual abuse committed by clergy in the diocese. That same year, he created a video series on Telecare, the diocesan television network. Targeted to commuters, the series was entitled "The Catholic Spirituality of Commuter Delays."[21]

In June 2020, the diocese, which suffered significant financial damage from the COVID-19 pandemic, filed court documents stating its intention to file for bankruptcy if there was no pause in nearly 100 pending sex abuse lawsuits.[22][23][24][25] In October 2020, Rockville Centre became the fourth diocese in New York State to declare bankruptcy.[26] An April 2021 bankruptcy filing documents allegations against some former priests who had not previously been publicly accused of abuse. In total, the diocese listed 101 accused clergy members, though a committee of unsecured creditors had published a list of 46 more names.[27]

In May 2000, Reverend Andrew Millar, a retired priest residing at the rectory of St. Peter and Paul Roman Church in Manorville, was arrested on sodomy charges. A parent had caught Millar sodomizing his 15 year old developmentally disabled son in a public bathroom at Tobay Beach in Nassau County.[28] The diocese had retired Millar in 1999 after receiving an abuse complaint dating back to 1991. After pleading guilty, Millar was sentenced in November 2000 to one to three years in prison.[29]

Reverend Michael Hands of St. Raphael's Parish in East Meadow was arrested in May 2001 on charges of sexual abuse and sodomy. He was accused of sexually abusing a 13 year old boy during 2000 and 2001.[30] Hands in January 2003 testified before a grand jury in Suffolk County as part of a plea agreement. He accused Monsignor Charles Ribaudo of sexually abusing him as a teenager, reporting it to the diocese in 2001. Bishop Murphy removed Ribaudo from ministry at that time. However, a few months later another diocesan official allegedly asked Hands to keep his accusations secret as the diocese wanted to reinstate Ribaudo.[31] In March 2003, after pleading guilty to abusing the boy, Hands was sentenced to two years in prison and five years probation.[32]

In November 2006, Reverend Thomas G. Saloy, an administrator at the Queen of the Most Holy Rosary Church in Roosevelt was arrested on charges of possessing child pornography. The Federal Bureau of Investigation came across Saloy while investigating an unrelated case in Wisconsin. Saloy then contacted an investigator on America Online, thinking it was a teenage boy.[33] In May 2008, after undergoing treatment in Maryland, Saloy pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.[34]

Reverend Gerald Twomey was arrested in May 2008 on charges of forcible touching and third-degree sexual abuse. He was accused of forcibly touching a man in a private home in 1996.[35] Twomey had been suspended from ministry since June 2007, when he was accused of sexually abusing a ten year old in 1964 or 1965.[36]

By August 2019, the diocese had named 68 clergy who were "credibly accused" of acts of sex abuse.[37] That same month, Bishop Robert E. Guglielmone of the Diocese of Charleston was named in a sex abuse lawsuit in New York. A man accused Guglielmone, then a pastor at St. Martin of Tours Catholic Church in Amityville, of sexually abusing him when he was an eight year in 1978.[38] Guglielmone denied the allegations. The diocese investigated the allegation and found it not credible.[39] In December 2020, the Vatican concluded its investigation and determined Guglielmone to be innocent of the charges.[40]

In February 2019, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo signed the Child Victims Act. The law created a one-year lookback period in which victims of child sex abuse could file civil lawsuits against abusers that were previously barred by the statute of limitations.[41] Also in February 2019, two women accused Bishop McGann of sexually abusing them as children in the 1960s and 1970s.[42]

In May 2020, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo extended the 2019 New York Child Victims Act's statute of limitation deadline to file sex abuse lawsuits from August 2020, to January 2021.[43] In May 2020, a Nassau County Supreme Court justice allowed pending lawsuits against the diocese to proceed. The justice rejected legal claims from the diocest that the Child Victims Act violated due process.[44][45]

1. Walter P. Kellenberg (1957–1976)
2. John R. McGann (1976–2000)
3. James T. McHugh (2000; coadjutor bishop 1998–2000)
4. William F. Murphy (2001–2017)
5. John O. Barres (2017–present)

• Andrzej Jerzy Zglejszewski (2014–present)
• Robert J. Coyle (2018–present; previously Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, 2013–2018)
• Luis Miguel Romero Fernández (2020–present)

• Vincent John Baldwin (1962–1979)
• John R. McGann (1970–1976), appointed Bishop of this diocese
• Gerald Augustine John Ryan (1977–1985)
• James Joseph Daly (1977–1996)
• Alfred John Markiewicz (1986–1994), appointed Bishop of Kalamazoo
• Emil Aloysius Wcela (1988–2007)
• John Charles Dunne (1988–2013)
• Paul Henry Walsh (2003–2012)
• Peter Anthony Libasci (2007–2011), appointed Bishop of Manchester
• Nelson J. Perez (2012–2017), appointed Bishop of Cleveland, later Archbishop of Philadelphia
• Robert J. Brennan (2012–2019), appointed Bishop of Columbus, later Bishop of Brooklyn
• Richard Garth Henning (2018–2023), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of the Diocese of Providence, Rhode Island.

• Robert E. Guglielmone, appointed Bishop of Charleston in 2009
• William Edward Koenig, appointed Bishop of Wilmington in 2021

Seminary of the Immaculate Conception – (1926 to 2012) The diocese now uses St. Joseph's Seminary in Yonkers as its major seminary.

• Holy Trinity Diocesan High School – Hicksville (1966)
• St. John the Baptist Diocesan High School – West Islip (1966)

• Chaminade High School – Mineola, Marianists Fathers and Brothers
• Kellenberg Memorial High School – Uniondale, Marianists Fathers and Brothers (1987)
• Our Lady of Mercy Academy – Syosset, Sisters of Mercy (1928)
• Sacred Heart Academy – Hempstead, Sisters of St. Joseph Brentwood (1949)
• St. Anthony's High School – South Huntington, Franciscan Brothers of Brooklyn (1933)
• St. Dominic High School – Oyster Bay, independent (1928)
• St. Mary's High School – Manhasset, Dominican Sisters of Mary, Mother of the Eucharist (1949)

• Academy of Saint Joseph – Brentwood, (1856 to 2009)
• Bishop McGann-Mercy Diocesan High School – Riverhead, (1956 to 2018)
• St. Pius X Preparatory Seminary – Uniondale, (1961 to 1984)