Roman Catholic Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts

Before the American Revolution, the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, which included the Springfield area, enacted laws prohibiting the practice of Catholicism in the colony. It was even illegal for a priest to reside there. To gain the support of Catholics for the fight against the British, colonial leaders were forced to enact religious freedom for Catholics in 1780.[1]

After the Revolution ended in 1783, Pope Pius VI moved to remove American Catholics from the jurisdiction of the Diocese of London. He erected in 1784 the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, encompassing the entire territory of the new nation. Pius VI created the Diocese of Baltimore, the first diocese in the United States, to replace the prefecture apostolic in 1789.[2]

Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Boston in 1808, removing all of New England from the Diocese of Baltimore.[3] The western Massachusetts region would remain part of the Diocese of Boston for the next 62 years. In 1830, St. Joseph's Church was founded in Springfield; it was the first Catholic church in western Massachusetts.[4]

On June 14, 1870, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Springfield. He removed Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester counties from the Diocese of Boston, making the new diocese a suffragan of the Archdiocese of New York.[5] Pius IX appointed Patrick O'Reilly from the Diocese of Boston as the first bishop of the new diocese.

During O'Reilly's time as bishop, the Catholic population of the diocese increased from 90,000 to 200,000; its priests from 43 to 196; its religious women from 12 to 321. O'Reilly laid the cornerstones of nearly 100 church, school or buildings. He established a hospital in Holyoke, Massachusetts that was operated by the Sisters of Providence opened orphanages in Holyoak and Worcester. O'Reilly persuaded the Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to set up congregations in the diocese. Mercy Hospital in Springfield was developed from mission of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul.

In 1875, Pius IX elevated the Diocese of Boston to the Archdiocese of Boston.[6] He transferred the Diocese of Springfield from the Archdiocese of New York to the new archdiocese.[5] O’Reilly died on May 28, 1892 Pope Leo XIII appointed Thomas Beaven as O'Reilly's replacement.

In addition to French and Irish parishes, Beaven established churches in the diocese for Polish, Italian, Lithuanian, Slovakian and Maronite Rite Catholics.[7] During his tenure, he opened the Beaven-Kelly Home for senior men; a home for abandoned infants; hospitals in Worcester, Springfield, Montague, and Adams; orphanages in Holyoke, Worcester, and Leicester; a House of the Good Shepherd at Springfield; and residences for single working women in many places.[8] Beaven died in 1920.

Pope Benedict XV named Thomas O'Leary from the Diocese of Manchester as the new bishop of Springfield. During his tenure, he introduced the Passionists and Sisters of Providence, expanded Mercy Hospital in Springfield and opened 24 new parishes. Pope Pius XI in October 1923 renamed the Diocese of Springfield as the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts. This was to avoid confusion with the newly erected Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.[9]

In 1928, O'Leary began planning the new Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee to be first Catholic college for women in western Massachusetts.[10][11] O'Leary died in 1949.

When Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Worcester in January 1950, he removed Worcester County from the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts.[12] This action established the present territory of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts. That same month, Pius XII appointed Christopher Weldon of New York as its new bishop.

During his tenure, Weldon oversaw the construction of Cathedral High School and Our Lady of Lourdes School, both in Springfield. He added a wing to Farren Memorial Hospital in Montague, Massachusetts, and built Mont Marie, the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield.[13] Weldon erected 10 new parishes, and constructed 11 new churches and several parish centers.[13] He established a center for the Hispanic apostolate in Springfield, and a diocesan newspaper in 1954.[13] Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Maguire of Boston was named coadjutor bishop in 1976 by Pope Paul VI to assist Weldon.

When Weldon retired in 1977, Maguire automatically succeeded him as the next bishop. As bishop, Maguire created a program to train permanent deacons for parish service. He also established the Apostolate for Black Catholics. He recruited 300 lay members from the diocese to visit the sick and disabled at home or in institutions.[14] Maguire retired in 1991. Pope John Paul II named Bishop John Marshall from the Diocese of Burlington as the sixth bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts in 1992.[15] Marshall died two years later; the pope then appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Dupré in 1995 as the next bishop of the diocese.[16] He retired in 2004.

In 2004, John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell of New York as the eighth bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts.

On May 13, 2004, McDonnell liquidated a fund designed to help priests accused of sexual misconduct. The fund had been set up by Dupré in late 2003. The existence of the fund had provoked conflict between McDonnell and one of his parish priests, James Scahill. Scahill had been withholding part of the parish collection to protest continued diocese support of Richard Lavigne, a priest convicted of child molestation in 1992. During a heated exchange at a council meeting, McDonnell accused Scahill of calling him a "Vatican lackey". When Scahill denied it, McDonnell said that he was worse than Lavigne and dismissed him from the meeting[17][18] Scahill and McDonnell later reconciled their differences. By 2010, 65 churches had been closed, with 13 of those buildings housing new congregations created by mergers. McDonnell was responsible for the majority of these parish closures.[19] He retired in 2014.

Auxiliary Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Baltimore was the next bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts, selected by Pope Francis in 2019. In December 2019, Rozanski banned the Pioneer Valley Gay Men's Chorus from singing in a Christmas caroling concert at St. Theresa's of Lisieux Parish in South Hadley.[20][21] Francis appointed Rozanski as archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 2020.

As of 2023, the current bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts is William Draper Byrne from the Archdiocese of Washington, named by Francis in 2020.

In 1992, Richard Lavigne pleaded guilty to two counts of child sexual abuse. He soon became a suspect in the 1972 murder of 13 year old Danny Croteau, whose body was found floating in the Connecticut River in Chicopee. However, there was never enough evidence to indict Levigne. In July 2021, the dying Levigne admitted to a Massachusetts State Police detective that he had seen Croteau's body floating down the river, but claimed he did not kill him. After the interview, prosecutors were ready to indict him for Croteau's murder, but Lavigne died the next day.[22]

On September 24, 2004, Bishop Dupré was indicted by a Hampden County grand jury on two counts of child molestation.[23] He became the first Catholic bishop ever to be indicted in the United States for sexual abuse.[24] However, the Springfield district attorney was forced to drop the charges because the statute of limitations had expired.[24]

In 2012, it was revealed that Maguire and Dupre had approved a $500,000 settlement in a sexual abuse case. The plaintiff, Andrew Nicastro, claimed that he was sexually abused as a minor by Alfred F. Graves, a diocesan priest, from 1982 to 1985. According to the lawsuit, Maguire had transferred Graves to another parish after receiving a sexual abuse accusation against Graves in 1976.[25][26] Graves was barred from ministry in the 1990s and laicized by the Vatican in 2006.[27]

In September 2018, a diocesan Review Board notified Bishop Rozanski that it had found an allegation of sexual abuse by Bishop Weldon credible. The board cited a Chicopee, resident who said that Weldon had abused him a child. The board later split on the case, with several members saying that the victim did not name Weldon directly, while three others present maintained they had witnessed otherwise. In June 2019, Rozanski met with the victim, saying he found the allegations "deeply troubling". In June 2020, an investigation by retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis found the victim's claim "to be unequivocally credible." Rozanski then asked Trinity Health of New England to remove Weldon's name from its rehabilitation center in Montague. Weldon's remains were disinterred and moved to more secluded spot in the cemetery. Rozanski ordered the removal of all photographs, memorials and other mentions of Weldon from all diocesan facilities.

In February 2019, a news report stated that diocese had received 15 complaints of sexual abuse in 2018.[28] On May 27, 2020, the diocese formed an independent task force to advise the bishop on allegations of sexual abuse.[29] In June 2020, an independent investigation found the allegations against Weldon to be credible.[30]

Both Weldon and Dupré were later alleged to have perpetrated sexual abuse of a minor or minors and to have covered up the murder of Danny Croteau by a priest in their charge, Richard R. Lavigne, who had sexually abused and then murdered the 13-year-old altar boy in 1972.[31][32]

After waiting over two decades, a woman who identified as a clergy abuse victim from the diocese saw the name of her abuser, Daniel Gill, added to the inventory of "credibly accused" priests; Gill had served at five churches in Hampden and Berkshire counties.[33]

In 2021, a civil lawsuit brought by a Chicopee former altar boy named in a cover-up as defendants the Roman Catholic Bishop of Springfield, a Corporation Sole, John J. Egan, former Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski, Patricia McManamy, Christopher Connelly, Jeffrey Trant, John Hale, Kevin Murphy and Mark Dupont.[34] In July 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts rejected the Diocese of Springfield's claim that the church was protected by charitable immunity, and the diocese's motion for the charges of sexual abuse and subsequent cover-up be dismissed. The Court-based this decision on the argument that sexual assault against children does not "involve conduct related to a charitable mission."[35]

In 2022, the diocese faced another lawsuit in Hampden Superior Court from an 84 year old Chicopee woman over allegations her parish priest grabbed her buttocks during a mass in 2019. The lawsuit stated that she made a report to the Franciscan order and to the diocese, speaking with Jeffrey Trant, director of the Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance. No charges were brought forward. The lawsuit claimed assault and battery, infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision and negligent hiring from the Diocese.[36]

1. Patrick Thomas O'Reilly (1870-1892)
2. Thomas Daniel Beaven (1892-1920)
3. Thomas Michael O'Leary (1921-1949)

1. Thomas Michael O'Leary (1921-1949)
2. Christopher Joseph Weldon (1950-1977)
3. Joseph Francis Maguire (1977-1992; coadjutor bishop 1976–1977)
4. John Aloysius Marshall (1992-1994)
5. Thomas Ludger Dupré (1995-2004)
6. Timothy Anthony McDonnell (2004–2014)
7. Mitchell Thomas Rozanski (2014–2020)
8. William Draper Byrne (2020–present)

• Leo Edward O'Neil (1980-1989), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Manchester and subsequently succeeded to that see
• Thomas Ludger Dupré (1990-1995), appointed Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts (see above)

• Daniel Francis Feehan, appointed Bishop of Fall River in 1907
• Joseph John Rice, appointed Bishop of Burlington in 1910
• Joseph Francis McGrath, appointed Bishop of Baker City in 1918
• William Augustine Hickey, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Providence in 1919 and subsequently succeeded to that see
• Timothy Joseph Harrington, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Worcester in 1968

• Jeffrey Trant (appointed 2019, resigned in 2022)
• Norman Charest (interim 2022 - 2023)
• Michael Collins (appointed 2023)

• Pope Francis Preparatory School – Springfield[37]
• Saint Mary High School – Westfield

• Cathedral High School – Springfield (merged into Pope Francis Preparatory School)
• Holyoke Catholic High School – Chicopee (merged into Pope Francis Preparatory School)
• St. Joseph Central High School – Pittsfield (closed 2017)