Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington

Before and during the American Revolutionary War, the Catholics in all of the British colonies in America were under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England. The first Catholic mission in Delaware was established by Jesuit missionaries near present-day Blackbird in 1747.[2]

After the end of the American Revolution in 1783, Pope Pius VI erected the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States in 1784, encompassing the entire United States. Five years later, he converted the prefecture into the Diocese of Baltimore.[3] St. Mary of the Assumption was the first Catholic church in Delaware, built by White Clay Creek in 1788.[4]

Patrick Kenney established a mission in 1804 on the site of the Coffee Run Cemetery in Mill Creek. The Coffee Run Mission Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973.[5][lower-alpha 1][6]

in 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Philadelphia out of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, placed all of Delaware into the new diocese. Delaware would remain part of the diocese of Philadelphia for the next 60 years. The first Catholic church in Wilmington was started in 1816.[4]

On March 3, 1868, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Wilmington. The new diocese contained the following counties:

• All the counties in Delaware, taken from the Diocese of Philadelphia
• Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, and Worcester counties in Maryland, taken from the Diocese of Philadelphia
• Accomack and Northampton counties in Virginia, taken from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

Pius IX designated the new diocese as a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. He appointed Reverend Thomas Becker of Baltimore as the first bishop of Wilmington. Becker oversaw a three-fold increase in the number of priests and doubled the number of churches.[7] He established an orphanage and academy for boys, an academy for girls, and two additional parochial schools.[7][8] After 18 years in Wilmington, Becker was appointed in 1886 by Pope Leo XIII as bishop of the Diocese of Savannah.

To replace Becker, Leo XIII in 1886 appointed Reverend Alfred Curtis from Baltimore as the second bishop of Wilmington. During his tenure as bishop, Curtis introduced the Josephite Fathers into the diocese to minister to African American Catholics. Curtis also built St. Joseph Church in Wilmington, an orphanage, and a parochial school and segregated facilities for the African-American congregation.[7] He also erected a cloistered convent for the Visitation Nuns.[9]

Twice a year, Curtis would visit the county almshouse to minister to the poor and bring them food. When he took office, Curtis discovered that all the church property in the diocese was under the personal name of the bishop. He spent the next few years filing legal transfers of all the property to the diocese itself.[10] He also led efforts to clear the sizable debt held by the diocese and its parishes.

Curtis retired in 1896 due to poor health and Leo XIII appointed Monsignor John Monaghan of the Diocese of Charleston as his replacement. When Monaghan became bishop, the diocese had 25,000 Catholics, 30 priests, 22 churches and 18 missions, 12 seminarians, eight religious communities, three academies, nine parochial schools, and three orphanages.[7] During his tenure, Monaghan established seven parishes, seven missions, and eight schools.[7] He also was instrumental in the establishment of the Oblate Fathers' Salesianum School for boys in Wilmington, St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, and a home for the elderly.[7] Monaghan retired in 1925 and Pope Pius XI replaced him with Monsignor Edmond Fitzmaurice from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.

During his 35-year tenure, Fitzmaurice oversaw an increase in the Catholic population from 34,000 to 85,000.[7] To accommodate these numbers, he founded 17 new parishes, eight missions, and 19 elementary and nine secondary schools.[7] Fitzmaurice encouraged participation in Catholic Charities, and founded the Catholic Welfare Guild, Catholic Youth Organization, Society for the Propagation of the Faith, and Knights of Columbus chapter in the diocese. He also established the Catholic Interracial Council, the Catholic Forum of the Air, the Catholic Television Guild, the Diocesan Book Forum, the Catholic Education Guild, and the Young Christian Workers.[7]

In 1945, Fitzmaurice ordered the Catholic parents of students in public high schools in the diocese to prohibit their children from attending sex education courses, which he described as "offensive to the Catholic conscience."[11]Pope Pius XII in 1958 appointed Reverend Michael Hyle of Baltimore as coadjutor bishop in Wilmington to assist the bishop. Fitzmaurice donated his personal residence in 1959 to provide a location for the founding of St. Edmond's Academy in Wilmington, which was named in his honor.

When Fitzmaurice resigned in 1960 as bishop of Wilmington, Hyle automatically succeeded him. He dedicated much of his administration to the implementation of the Second Vatican Council reforms, encouraging the formation of parish councils and the ecumenical movement.[7] Hyle also established St. Mark's High School in Wilmington and the University of Delaware's Newman Centre (Thomas More Oratory) in Newark.[7] Hyle died in 1967 and Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Mardaga from Baltimore as the next bishop of Wilmington.[7]

During his 16-year tenure, Mardaga continued the implementation of the Second Vatican Council reforms, establishing a council for the laity and participating in ecumenical work.[7] He also reorganized the diocesan curia and created a ministry for migrant workers. In 1974, Paul VI transferred the two Virginia counties in the Diocese of Wilmington to the Diocese of Richmond, establishing the present territory of the diocese. Following Mardaga's death in 1984, Pope John Paul II in 1985 named Auxiliary Bishop Robert Mulvee from the Diocese of Manchester as Mardaga's replacement.

During his tenure as bishop of Wilmington, Mulvee emphasized collegiality in his administration of the diocese, helped restructure the Delmarva Ecumenical Agency into the Christian Council of Delaware and Maryland's Eastern Shore, and founded three new missions and raised a fourth to parish status.[7] Mulvee's tenure in Wilmington ended in 1995 when John Paul II named him as coadjutor bishop for the Diocese of Providence.

John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop Michael Saltarelli of the Archdiocese of Newark as Mulvee's replacement in Wilmington in 1996. During his tenure, Saltarelli oversaw an increase of over 60,000 Catholics in the diocese, ordained 23 priests and 47 permanent deacons, and constructed or renovated numerous churches, schools, and other facilities.[12] After Saltarelli retired in 2007, Pope Benedict XVI named Auxiliary Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Baltimore to replace him. Malooly was criticized by some Catholic news outlets for refusing to withhold communion from then Vice President Joseph Biden due to his position on abortion rights for women.[13]

In 2009, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of financial liabilities from lawsuits regarding sexual abuse by priests.[14]

Malooly retired in 2021 and Pope Francis appointed William Koenig of the Diocese of Rockville Centre as the new bishop of Wilmington. As of 2023, Koenig is the current bishop of the Diocese of Wilmington.

Joseph Curry, a former altar boy at St. Dennis Church in Galena, sued the Diocese of Wilmington in August 2008. Curry claimed that he had been sexually abused over 100 times by Reverend Edward B. Carley. The abuse started in 1981, when Curry was 10 years old. The lawsuit claimed that the diocese knew that Carley had sexually abused parishioners at St. Ann's Church in Wilmington during the 1950's and early 1960's.[15] Carley died in 1998. Curry and the diocese settled the lawsuit in 2011 for $1.7 million.[16]

Also in August 2008, Mary Dougherty sued the diocese, claiming that Reverend Leonard J. Mackiewicz had attempted to rape her in 1966. The crime happened on the beach at Indian River Inlet at a Catholic Youth Organization event when Dougherty was in the eighth grade. Another priest saw the attack and pulled Mackiewicz off her. This act was the culmination of Mackiewicz grooming her for several months. The lawsuit also alleged the existence of nine other abuse victims of Mackiewicz.[17] The diocese removed him from ministry in 1987.[18]

In 2011, a bankruptcy court approved a bankruptcy settlement plan for the diocese. Under the plan, 150 victims, including Mary Dougherty, were to receive an average payment of $310,000 each, totaling $77.425 million. The clergy accused of abuse were not identified.[19]

In 2017, Netflix released The Keepers, a documentary investigation into the 1969 murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik in Baltimore. According to the documentary, Bishop Malooly in 1994 met with Charles Franz and his mother Denise Franz. The meeting was about their allegations of sexual abuse by Joseph Maskell, a diocese priest, against Charles Franz when he was a minor. In that meeting, Denise Franz told Malooly that she had reported Maskell to the archdiocese in 1967. The documentary claimed that Malooly said they never received her report. In an official response, Malooly said he told the Franzes that the archdiocese had no record of that 1967 report on Maskell.

The Keepers also charged that the archdiocese, aware of sexual abuse accusations against Maskell, still allowed him to work at Seton Keough Catholic school from 1968 to 1975, where he abused several dozen children [20] In his statement, Malooly said that he first heard allegations against Maskell in 1992, when Malooly was chancellor of the archdiocese. At that time, the archdiocese removed Maskell from ministry, sent him for treatment and started an investigation. Maskell was returned to ministry in 1993 after the archdiocese failed to substantiate the charges against him[21] Maskell was removed from ministry again in 1994. He fled to Ireland later that year to avoid criminal prosecution for the rape of a female student in Maryland.[22]

In July 2019, the diocese suspended Reverend William J. Porter from public ministry. Porter had been accused of sexually abusing a teenage in 1981 while serving at Our Lady of Fatima Parish in New Castle. The Delaware State Police had investigated the allegations. but determined that the statute of limitations for prosecution of this incident had passed.[23]

1. Thomas Albert Andrew Becker (1868–1886), appointed Bishop of Savannah
2. Alfred Allen Paul Curtis (1886–1896)
3. John James Joseph Monaghan (1897–1925)
4. Edmond John Fitzmaurice (1925–1960), appointed Archbishop ad personam upon retirement in 1960
5. Michael William Hyle (1960–1967)
6. Thomas Joseph Mardaga (1968–1984)
7. Robert Edward Mulvee (1985–1995), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Providence and later succeeded to that see
8. Michael Angelo Saltarelli (1995–2008)
9. William Francis Malooly (2008–2021)
10. William Edward Koenig (2021–present)

• Hubert James Cartwright (1956–1958)
• Michael William Hyle (1958–1960)

• Benjamin Joseph Keiley (priest here 1873–1886), appointed Bishop of Savannah in 1900
• James C. Burke, O.P., was Territorial Prelate of Chimbote (1965-1978, being consecrated bishop in 1967) before serving here 1978-1994
• John Barres, appointed Bishop of Allentown in 2009 and later Bishop of Rockville Centre

• Padua Academy – Wilmington
• St. Elizabeth High School – Wilmington
• St. Mark's High School – Wilmington
• Saints Peter and Paul High School – Easton

St. Thomas More Preparatory – Magnolia