Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah

The Diocese of Savannah comprises 90 counties in southern Georgia. It covers {{convert|37038|sqmi|km2}} and contains 57 churches and 29 missions.{{Cite web |title=Home - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah |url=https://diosav.org/en/about-us |access-date=April 15, 2025 |website=www.diosav.org}} As of 2025, the diocese contained 80,000 Catholics.

Before and during the American Revolutionary War, the Catholics in all of the British colonies in North America were under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England. However, Catholics were banned from the Georgia colony from its founding in 1733 until 1752, when it became a royal colony.{{Cite web |title=History |url=https://themostholytrinity.org/our-history#:~:text=Church%20of%20the%20Most%20Holy,Catholic%20Church%20building%20in%20Georgia. |access-date=April 11, 2023 |website=Most Holy Trinity Catholic Church}}

The first Catholics to arrive in the Province of Georgia were French refugees from the Haitian Revolution that started in 1791. They established the Congrégation de Saint Jean-Baptiste in Savannah and constructed a wood-frame church, the first Catholic church in the city.{{Cite web |last=Amanda Aguilar |date=2020-03-17 |title=History of the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist |url=https://www.wtoc.com/2020/03/17/history-cathedral-st-john-baptist/ |access-date=2023-04-11 |website=www.wtoc.com |language=en}}

File:Bishop Francis Xavier Gartland.jpg

Pope Pius VI erected the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States in 1784, encompassing the entire nation. Five years later, he converted the prefecture into the Diocese of Baltimore.{{cite web |title=Our History |url=http://www.archbalt.org/our-history/index.cfm |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080724200915/http://archbalt.org/our-history/index.cfm |archive-date=July 24, 2008 |access-date=2009-03-30 |publisher=Archdiocese of Baltimore}} In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected of the Diocese of Charleston, including all of the new State of Georgia. Most Holy Trinity Church, the oldest Catholic church in Georgia, was founded in Augusta in 1810. During the 1800s, Irish Catholic immigrants started swelling the Catholic population of Savannah. Saint Joseph's, the first Catholic parish in Macon, was established in 1841.

Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Savannah on July 19, 1850, from the Diocese of Charleston. The new diocese consisted of Georgia and the state of Florida, minus the Florida Panhandle region.The Archdiocese of Atlanta: A history, Strasbourg, France: Editions du Signe, Archdiocese of Atlanta, 2006. Pius IX appointed Monsignor Francis Gartland from the Diocese of Philadelphia as the first bishop of the new diocese.

During Gartland's tenure, the Catholic population in the diocese doubled; more priests were added, including recruits from Ireland. He erected three new churches and enlarged the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, dedicating it in June 1853.{{cite news |last=Clarke |first=Richard Henry |title=RIGHT REV. FRANCIS XAVIER GARTLAND, D.D. |work=Lives of the Deceased Bishops of the Catholic Church in the United States}} Gartland also established an orphanage and several Catholic schools.{{cite news |last=Shea, John Gilmary |author-link=John Gilmary Shea |title=Diocese of Savannah |work=History of the Catholic Church in the United States}} Gartland died of yellow fever in 1854 while visiting the sick during an epidemic in Savannah. The post of bishop was vacant for the next three years.

On January 9, 1857, Pius IX erected the Vicariate Apostolic of Florida and removed all of Florida from the Diocese of Savannah. At the same time, Pius IX named Monsignor John Barry as bishop of Savannah. Barry also had a short tenure as bishop, dying in France in 1859. Pius IX appointed Bishop Augustin Vérot, then vicar apostolic of Florida, to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Savannah.

During the American Civil War, Vérot condemned the looting of the Catholic church at Amelia Island, Florida, by Union Army troops. He personally evacuated several Sisters of Mercy from Jacksonville, Florida, to Savannah through the battle zone in Georgia.Gannon at p. 174 After the war, Vérot published a pastoral letter urging Catholics in the diocese to "put away all prejudice ...against their former servants". He also advocated a national coordinator for evangelization among African-Americans, and brought in French sisters from LePuy, France, to work with them.Cyprian Davis, History of Black Catholics in the United States (New York: Crossroad Publishing Company 1990) p. 119

File:Bishop Augustin Verot.jpg

Pius IX erected the new Diocese of St. Augustine in 1870 and appointed Vérot as its first bishop. He named Bishop Ignatius Persico from the Roman Curia as Vérot's replacement in Savannah.

Poor health forced Persico to resign this post in 1873. Pius IX then named Reverend William Gross of the Redemptorist Order in 1873 to become the new bishop of Savannah. During his tenure in Savannah, Gross laid the cornerstone of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in November 1873 and dedicated it in April 1876. In addition to erecting several churches, schools, orphanages, and hospitals, he opened a men's college at Macon, Georgia, introduced the Jesuits and Benedictines to the diocese, and established a diocesan newspaper, The Southern Cross, in 1875. In 1885, Pope Leo XIII appointed Gross as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oregon City.

Bishop Thomas Becker from the Diocese of Wilmington was appointed bishop of Savannah by Leo XIII in 1886. During his tenure, Becker added an episcopal residence to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which he completed with the building of its spires in 1896.{{cite news |title=The Right Reverend Thomas A. Becker, D.D. |work=Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah |url=http://diosav.org/about-us-bishopbecker |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927165249/http://diosav.org/about-us-bishopbecker |archivedate=2011-09-27}} After the cathedral was nearly destroyed by fire in 1898, Becker solicited funds for its rebuilding.

File:Bishop Benjamin Joseph Keiley.jpg

File:KEYES, M.J. BISHOP LCCN2016861361.jpg

After 13 years in office, Becker died in 1899. Leo XIII replaced him with Monsignor Benjamin Keiley in 1900. During his tenure, Keiley completed the restoration of Cathedral of St. John the Baptist started by Becker; he dedicated the new edifice in October 1900.{{Cite book |title=The Catholic Church in the United States of America |publisher=The Catholic Editing Company |year=1914 |place=New York |contribution=Diocese of Savannah}} In other pronouncements, Keiley condemned prejudice and the lynchings of African-Americans.{{Cite book |last=McDonogh |first=Gary W. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZAdb_5sW4HwC&dq=bishop+keiley+racism&pg=PA219 |title=Black and Catholic in Savannah, Georgia |date=1993 |publisher=Univ. of Tennessee Press |isbn=978-0-87049-811-4 |language=en}} In 1902, Keiley memorialized Confederate States Army veterans from the American Civil War and praised former Confederate President Jefferson Davis. KKelley condemned U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt for inviting the African-American educator Booker T. Washington to the White House.{{Cite journal |last=Buttimer |first=Brendan J. |date=2003 |title=Turning Away from Georgia toward Rome: The Diocese of Savannah and the Growth of the Anti-Catholic Movement in Georgia, 1870-1970 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25154875 |journal=U.S. Catholic Historian |volume=21 |issue=4 |pages=17–35 |issn=0735-8318 |jstor=25154875}} Keiley opposed an initiative to set up a seminary for African-Americans in the diocese, saying:

"In America no black man should be ordained. Just as illegitimate sons are declared irregular by canon law...so blacks can be declared irregular because they are held in such contempt by whites."{{cite news |last=Unsworth |first=Tim |year=1997 |title=Racism and Religion: Partners in Crime? |work=Claretian Publications |url=http://salt.claretianpubs.org/issues/racism/unsworth.html}}

Auxiliary Bishop Gerald O'Hara from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was appointed bishop of Savannah by Pius XI in 1935. During his tenure, O'Hara built the Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, dedicated in January 1939.{{cite news |last=DeLorme |first=Rita H. |date=May 11, 2006 |title=Comparing two 1939 'premieres' of note |work=The Southern Cross |url=http://www.diosav.org/files/archives/S8619p03.pdf |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214083157/http://www.diosav.org/files/archives/S8619p03.pdf |archivedate=December 14, 2010}} The cathedral was built on the former site of Ku Klux Klan gatherings, and O'Hara even invited Imperial Wizard Hiram Evans to the dedication.{{cite magazine |date=January 30, 1939 |title=People |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,760713,00.html |url-status=dead |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081214200628/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,760713,00.html |archive-date=December 14, 2008}} O'Hara once criticized the Savannah Press after the newspaper ran a whimsical St. Patrick's Day editorial repeating the old fable crediting Saint Patrick with having granted women the privilege to woo during leap years.{{cite magazine |date=May 4, 1936 |title=More Bishops |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882637,00.html |url-status=dead |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081215082745/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,882637,00.html |archive-date=December 15, 2008}} O'Hara was considered a leader in church efforts to improve race relations,{{cite magazine |date=July 26, 1963 |title=Milestones |url=http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870290,00.html |url-status=dead |magazine=Time |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070930102018/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870290,00.html |archive-date=September 30, 2007}} launching a seven-point social and racial program in the 1930s, calling for aid to African American children and heightened awareness of rural issues.{{cite news |last=Sherry |first=Gerard E. |date=July 18, 1963 |title=Death Claims Archbishop Gerald P. O'Hara |work=The Georgia Bulletin |url=http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/1963/07/18/a |url-status=dead |access-date=September 19, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120828061928/http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/1963/07/18/a/ |archive-date=August 28, 2012}}

Pius XI renamed the Diocese of Savannah as the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta on January 5, 1937. This action reflected the increased population and rising prominence of Atlanta. He also designated the Church of Christ the King in Atlanta as the co-cathedral in the second see.

With the increased Catholic population in northern Georgia, Pope Pius XII on July 2, 1956, erected the Diocese of Atlanta. Northern Georgia went into the new diocese and southern Georgia stayed into the newly renamed Diocese of Savannah.

Pope John XXIII appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J. McDonough of St. Augustine as auxiliary bishop in Savannah in 1957. O'Hara resigned as bishop of Savannah in 1959 to serve full time as a papal diplomat and John XXIII replaced him with McDonough. He signed the "Pentecost Statement" of the bishops of the Atlanta Province, condemning racial discrimination as contrary to Christian principles.{{cite news |date=1965-06-03 |title=Pentecost Statement Issued By Bishops In Atlanta Province |work=The Georgia Bulletin |url=http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/1965/06/03/b |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081013060402/http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/1965/06/03/b/ |archive-date=2008-10-13}}

On February 10, 1962, Pope John XXIII elevated the Diocese of Atlanta to the Archdiocese of Atlanta. The Diocese of Savannah was removed from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and designated a suffragan of the new archdiocese.

In 1967, Pope Paul VI appoint McDonough as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Louisville and named Monsignor Gerard Frey from the Archdiocese of New Orleans as his successor in Savannah. During his tenure, Frey launched the Social Apostolate, a social service agency designed "to put people in the pews in touch with the poor." He also encouraged every church in the diocese to establish a parish council. After appointing Frey as bishop of the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana in 1972, Paul VI named Reverend Raymond W. Lessard from the Diocese of Fargo to replace him in Savannah. Lessard once served as liaison between Catholic bishops and married Episcopalian clergy seeking Catholic ordination.The Georgia Bulletin. [http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/1979/01/04/b/ 1978 -- A Very Good Year] January 4, 1979 He once described racism as "the paramount social problem affecting our area".The Georgia Bulletin. [http://www.georgiabulletin.org/local/1982/08/05/b/ The Klan and Catholics -- An Analysis] August 5, 1982

Pope John Paul II appointed Reverend J. Kevin Boland as bishop of Savannah in 1995. After serving in the diocese for 15 years, Boland retired in 2010. To replace him, Pope Benedict XVI named Reverend Gregory Hartmayer of the Conventual Franciscans to be the new bishop of Savannah. In 2020, Pope Francis appointed Hartmayer as archbishop of Atlanta. Francis appointed Reverend Stephen D. Parkes from the Diocese of Orlando as bishop of Savannah.

Stephen Parkes is the current serving bishop. In May 2022, Parkes contacted the Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments requesting permission to continue the Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese of Savannah. This dispensation was granted for the period of one year, and in September 2023, the Dicastery extended this dispensation for an additional two years.{{Cite web |title=Update on the Use of the Missale Romanum of 1962 - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah |url=https://diosav.org/en/news/item/update-on-the-use-of-the-missale-romanum-of-1962 |access-date=2024-06-10 |website=diosav.org |language=en-gb}}{{Cite web |last=CNA |title=Savannah diocese to end Traditional Latin Masses |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/251822/vatican-instructs-savannah-diocese-to-end-traditional-latin-masses-in-may-2023-bishop-says |access-date=2023-02-21 |website=Catholic News Agency |language=en}}

{{Main|Sexual abuse scandal in the Catholic diocese of Savannah}}

In 2004, the Diocese of Savannah reported that it had paid a total of $50,000 to 12 people who accused six diocesan priests of sexually abusing them.{{Cite web|url=https://www.bishop-accountability.org/usccb/natureandscope/dioceses/savannahga.htm|title=Bishop Accountability|website=www.bishop-accountability.org|accessdate=Apr 5, 2021}} One of these priests, Reverend Wayland Brown, had been sentenced in 2003 to ten years in prison in Maryland for molesting two boys there. He was laicized by the Vatican in 2004.

In 2009, the diocese agreed to a $4.24 million lawsuit settlement with Allan Ranta, another victim of sexual abuse by Brown. Bishop Boland released this statement:

I am sorry for all the pain and suffering experienced by Mr. Ranta and my prayers go out not only to him, but to all victims of child sexual abuse that each may find the healing they seek.{{Cite web |date=2009-11-03 |title=Savannah Diocese Settles Priest Sex Abuse Case for $4.2 Million |url=https://www.claimsjournal.com/news/southeast/2009/11/04/105080.htm |access-date=2021-10-21 |website=Claims Journal |language=en-US}}

Brown pleaded guilty in South Carolina in 2018 to six counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, second degree and three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, first degree. His victims were two boys Allan Ranta and Chris Templeton. Brown, then at St. James Catholic Church in Savannah, first raped Ranta in 1978 when the boy was nine years old; the abuse lasted for a year. After unrelated abuse allegations surfaced, the diocese sent Brown for treatment, then returned him to St. James. In 1987, Brown raped Templeton 50 times.

Brown and the victims were residing in Georgia at the time, which did not allow prosecution for sex crimes that far in the past. However, since Brown had driven the boys to South Carolina several times and committed crimes there, he could be prosecuted under South Carolina law. Brown was sentenced to 20 years in prison.{{Cite web |title=Lawsuit: Diocese of Savannah covered up sex abuse allegations by former priest in 1980s |url=https://www.blufftontoday.com/story/news/2020/09/30/lawsuit-diocese-savannah-covered-up-sex-abuse-allegations-1980-s/5870090002/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Bluffton Today |language=en-US}}{{Cite web |last=Emerson |first=Anne |date=2018-10-25 |title=Former Savannah priest Wayland Brown sentenced to 20 years in SC for child sex crimes |url=https://abcnews4.com/news/local/former-savannah-priest-wayland-brown-sentenced-to-20-yrs-in-sc-for-child-sex-crimes |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=WCIV |language=en}} He died in prison in 2019.{{Cite web |title=Former Catholic priest Brown dies |url=https://www.savannahnow.com/story/news/2019/06/25/defrocked-savannah-catholic-priest-wayland-brown-dies/4827159007/ |access-date=2023-07-02 |website=Savannah Morning News |language=en-US}}

In 2020, Bishop Parkes and the diocese were sued by William Fred Baker Jr. Baker claimed that the diocese knew that Brown was molesting him in 1987 and 1988 when he was a 10-year-old attending St. James Catholic School.{{Cite web |title=Lawsuit alleges Catholic Diocese of Savannah covered up sex abuse claims |url=https://www.ajc.com/news/lawsuit-alleges-catholic-diocese-of-savannah-covered-up-sex-abuse-claims/GWG6H2DFV5DWDFK25EZ6UA5PMU/ |access-date=2021-10-13 |website=ajc |language=English}}

The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia in March 2023 released a report that identified seven diocesan priests and eight religious order priests in the diocese as having credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.{{Cite web |last=CNA |title=Report finds 28 credible child sex abuse claims of Georgia priests in last 70 years |url=https://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/253972/report-finds-28-credible-child-sex-abuse-claims-of-georgia-priests-in-last-70-years |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=Catholic News Agency |language=en}}

The diocese was founded in 1850 as the Diocese of Savannah, covering all of Georgia and part of Florida. From 1937 to 1956, it was the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta. In 1956, it became the Diocese of Savannah again when northern Georgia was split off into the Diocese of Atlanta.

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1. Francis Xavier Gartland (1850–1854)
2. John Barry (1857–1859)
3. Augustin Verot (1861–1870), appointed Bishop of Saint Augustine
4. Ignatius Persico (1870–1874)
5. William Hickley Gross (1873–1885), appointed Archbishop of Oregon City
6. Thomas Albert Andrew Becker (1886–1899)
7. Benjamin Joseph Keiley (1900–1922)
8. Michael Joseph Keyes (1922–1935)
9. Gerald Patrick Aloysius O'Hara (1935–1959), Archbishop (personal title) in 1950; appointed Apostolic Nuncio to Ireland and later Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain

1. Gerald Patrick Aloysius O'Hara (1935–1959),

1. Gerald Patrick Aloysius O'Hara (1935–1959),
2. Thomas Joseph McDonough (1960–1967), appointed Archbishop of Louisville
3. Gerard Louis Frey (1967–1972), appointed Bishop of Lafayette in Louisiana
4. Raymond W. Lessard (1973–1995)
5. J. Kevin Boland (1995–2011)
6. Gregory John Hartmayer (2011–2020), appointed Archbishop of Atlanta
7. Stephen D. Parkes (2020–present)

• Francis Edward Hyland (1949–1956), appointed Bishop of Atlanta
• Thomas Joseph McDonough (1957–1960), appointed Bishop of Savannah

• Andrew Joseph McDonald, appointed Bishop of Little Rock in 1972
• Emmet M. Walsh, appointed Bishop of Charleston in 1927 and later Coadjutor Bishop of Youngstown succeeding to that see

As of 2020, the Diocese of Atlanta had 102 priests and members of religious orders.{{Cite web |title=About Us - The Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah |url=https://diosav.org/en/about-us |access-date=2024-07-12 |website=diosav.org}}

File:St. Vincent's Academy, 207 East Liberty Street, Savannah, Chatham County, GA.jpg

As of 2024, the Diocese of Savannah has five high schools and 11 elementary schools. The high schools include: {{div col|colwidth=30em}}

• Aquinas High School, Augusta
• Benedictine Military School, Savannah
• Mount de Sales Academy, Macon
• Pacelli High School, Columbus
• St. Vincent's Academy, Savannah

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{{Portal|Georgia (U.S. state)|Catholicism}}

• Historical list of the Catholic bishops of the United States
• List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
• List of Roman Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
• List of Roman Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
• List of Roman Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)

{{Reflist}}

• [http://www.diosav.org/ Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah Official Site]
• [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dsava.html Catholic Hierarchy Profile of the Diocese of Savannah]

{{Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah}}

{{Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Atlanta}}

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Savannah

Diocese of Savannah

Category:Culture of Savannah, Georgia

Savannah

Savannah

Savannah

Category:1850 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state)