Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington

Diocese of Burlington Dioecesis Burlingtonensis
Cathedral of Saint Joseph
Coat of arms
Location
Country	United States
Territory	State of Vermont
Ecclesiastical province	Boston
Metropolitan	Boston
Coordinates	44°28′47″N 73°12′53″W / 44.47972°N 73.21472°W / 44.47972; -73.21472Coordinates: 44°28′47″N 73°12′53″W / 44.47972°N 73.21472°W / 44.47972; -73.21472
Statistics
Area	9,135 sq mi (23,660 km2)
Population - Total - Catholics (including non-members)	(as of 2015) 661,000 125,500 (19%)
Parishes	74
Information
Denomination	Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	July 29, 1853 by Pope Pius IX
Cathedral	Cathedral of Saint Joseph
Patron saint	Immaculate Conception Saint Joseph
Secular priests	135
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Christopher J. Coyne
Metropolitan Archbishop	Seán Patrick O'Malley
Vicar General
Map
Website
vermontcatholic.org

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington (Latin: Dioecesis Burlingtonensis) is a diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the New England region of the United States, comprising the entire state of Vermont. The Diocese of Burlington was canonically erected on July 29, 1853 by Pope Pius IX. Its territories were taken from the former Diocese of Boston. The Burlington See is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Boston.^[1] Bishop Christopher J. Coyne has been the diocesan bishop since 2015. The cathedral church is Saint Joseph's in Burlington.

History[]

Early History[]

The northern region of Vermont was largely settled by French Canadians who came south from the present Canadian Province of Quebec. Although Vermont was included within the jurisdiction of the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States when Pope Pius VI erected it on 26 November 1784 and subsequently elevated it to the Diocese of Baltimore on 6 November 1789, bishops of Quebec continued to look after the spiritual interests of the Catholic settlers and Indians. In 1801, Bishop John Carroll of the Diocese of Baltimore accepted the offer of Bishop Denault of the Diocese of Quebec to care for French-speaking Catholics in Vermont, formalizing the arrangement.

Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Boston April 8, 1808, taking the territory of the states of Connecticut, Massachusetts (the territory of which included the present state of Maine at that time), New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont from the Diocese of Baltimore. He simultaneously erected the Diocese of New York, the Diocese of Philadelphia, and the Diocese of Bardstown (Kentucky), also taking their territory from the Diocese of Baltimore, and elevated the Diocese of Baltimore to a metropolitan archdiocese, designating all four new dioceses as its suffragans.^[2]

In the early years of the nineteenth century, there were no priests residing in Vermont. Father Matignon, of Boston, visited Burlington in 1815 and counted about 100 Catholic Canadians. Circa 1818, Father Migneault from Chambly, Quebec, looked after the spiritual needs of the settlers on the shores of Lake Champlain for several years. Bishop Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, the first Bishop of Boston, appointed him vicar-general of this part of the diocese. He continued in that capacity until 1853.

Father Fitton, of Boston, came to Burlington for a short time in the summer of 1829. Bishop Fenwick, second Bishop of Boston, visited Windsor in 1826. The first resident priest in Vermont was Rev. Jeremiah O'Callaghan from 1830 until 1847. He was sent by Fenwick to Vermont, and visited successively Wallingford, Pittsford, Vergennes, and Burlington. He settled at Burlington, where he ministered for nearly a quarter of a century. His field of labor extended from Rutland to the Canadian line, a distance of about 100 miles (160 km), and from the shores of Lake Champlain to the Connecticut River.

Fenwick made his first pastoral visit, as Bishop of Boston, to Vermont in 1830, and in 1832 he dedicated the first church built in Vermont in the nineteenth century. This was erected at Burlington under the supervision of Father O'Callaghan.

In 1837 Rev. John Daley came to the southern part of the state. He is described as an "eccentric, but very learned man". During the time of his zealous labors in Vermont, he had no particular home. He usually made his headquarters at Rutland or Middlebury. He acted as a missionary, traveling from place to place wherever there were Catholics, and stopping wherever night overtook him. He remained in the state until 1854 and died in New York in 1870.

A census of the Catholic population of Vermont, taken in 1843, showed the total number to be 4940. At about this time emigration from European countries, particularly from Ireland, increased. The Catholic population increased.

During 1837 to 1854, Father John B. Daly performed missionary work in southern Vermont.

On 19 July 1850, Pope Pius IX elevated the Diocese of New York to a metropolitan archdiocese, assigning the Diocese of Boston, the Diocese of Hartford, the Diocese of Albany, and the Diocese of Buffalo as its initial suffragan sees.^[3]

Formation[]

In 1852 a meeting of the bishops of the Metropolitan Province of New York decided to ask the Holy See to erect Vermont into a diocese, with Burlington as the see city. Bishop Fitzpatrick of Boston proposed Louis de Goesbriand, Vicar-General of Cleveland, Ohio, to be the first Bishop of Burlington. On 29 July 1853, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Burlington, taking the State of Vermont from the Diocese of Boston, making it a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of New York, and appointing Father De Goesbriand named as bishop. He was consecrated at New York by the apostolic delegate,^[4] Archbishop Bedini, on October 30, 1853. On November 5, he arrived at Burlington. He was installed the following day by Bishop Fitzpatrick. Bishop De Goesbriand visited the entire diocese. He found about 20,000 Catholics scattered throughout Vermont. In 1855 he visited France and Ireland for the purpose of securing priests for the Diocese of Vermont. He brought several priests to the diocese who helped build the Church in Vermont in the succeeding years.

The first diocesan synod was held at Burlington, October 4, 1855. Rev. Thomas Lynch was appointed vicar-general in 1858. The gothic Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception was built in Burlington starting in 1861 under the supervision of Bishop De Goesbriand. It was completed and dedicated on December 8, 1867. By 1881 DeGoesbriand had a dozen priests to serve 6,000 congregants scattered throughout the state.^[5]

On 12 February 1875, Pope Pius IX elevated the Diocese of Boston to a metropolitan archdiocese,^[6] designating the Diocese of Burlington, the Diocese of Hartford, the Diocese of Portland, the Diocese of Providence, and the Diocese of Springfield as the initial suffragans of the new metropolitan see.^[7]

Subsequent History[]

In the 1870s, the diocese bought about 25 acres (10 ha) of land on North Avenue from a former Burlington Free Press editor. It built a Victorian house there, where it maintained an orphanage for nearly a century. In 1945, it bought about 7 acres (2.8 ha) adjacent and created the Don Bosco School for delinquent boys. After the school and orphanage closed, the diocese moved its headquarters there. Decades later, former residents filed complaints of physical and sexual abuse by former clergy. Attempting to meet a settlement of $30 million, the diocese sold the property to Burlington College for $10 million in 2010.^[8] The Diocese's St. Joseph Orphanage, which as numerous sex abuse allegations,^[9] would be sold in as well.^[9]

In 1891, the Diocese of Burlington had the highest ratio of French priests to francophone parishioners (1:1610) in New England.^[10]

Bishop De Goesbriand served for thirty-eight years. In 1892, because of his advancing years and failing health, he requested the appointment of a coadjutor. Pope Leo XIII appointed Rev. J. S. Michaud, then pastor of Bennington, Vermont, to this post. Bishop De Goesbriand retired to the orphanage, which he had founded.

Michaud completed the Cathedral Church, built the Fanny Allen Hospital and staffed it with the Religious Hospitalers of St. Joseph. The Sisters of Charity of Providence operated another new hospital in St. Johnsbury; the Loretto Home for the Aged in Rutland was served by the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1904, the Bishop invited the dedicated Society of Saint Edmund to establish Saint Michael's College at Winooski Park. In 1905, the Daughters of Charity of the Sacred Heart of Jesus came to Newport where they opened a mission to serve as teachers, nurses and catechists for the Northeast Kingdom.^[11]

During his tenure, Michaud expanded the number of churches in Vermont from 72 to 94. There were 75,000 Catholics, 102 priests, 286 religious sisters, and 20 parochial schools serving some 7000 students.

Bishop Michaud died on December 22, 1908. Rev. J.J. Rice, D.D., then pastor of St. Peter's Church, Northbridge, Massachusetts, was selected as his successor. Bishop Rice was consecrated on 14 April 1910.

In March 1972, an arsonist burned the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception to the ground. A modern cathedral with the same name was erected on the same site in 1977.^[12][13][14]

Catholic schools experienced a 24% drop in enrollment between 1998 and 2008 - from 3,190 to 2,431.^[15]

In 1999 Saint Joseph Church in Burlington was elevated as the co-cathedral of the diocese.^[16] Burlington became one of only four American dioceses to have two active cathedral churches in the same city. The Archdiocese of Baltimore, the Diocese of Honolulu, and the Diocese of Brooklyn are the other three.^[17] (The Archdiocese of Anchorage also had two cathedrals in the city of Anchorage, Alaska, from the elevation of Our Lady of Guadalupe Church to a co-cathedral on 12 December 2014 until the canonical suppression of that archdiocese, which took effect on 17 September 2020, with which Holy Family Old Cathedral ceased to be a cathedral church.)

In 2010, the diocese ordained four priests, the highest number in decades.^[18]

On December 22, 2014, Pope Francis appointed the Most Rev. Christopher J. Coyne, formerly the Auxiliary Bishop of Indianapolis, as the next diocesan bishop, replacing the Most Rev. Salvatore Ronald Matano, who was appointed as Bishop of Rochester. Bishop Coyne's installation took place on January 29, 2015, at the Co-Cathedral of Saint Joseph.

On October 11, 2018, the Diocese of Burlington announced that the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception would be sold following a long period of low attendance and that its members would be transferred to St. Joseph's, which became the sole cathedral.^[19]

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Diocese of Burlington". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

Sexual abuse[]

In 2010, the diocese settled 26 lawsuits for sexual abuse by priests, for $20,946,750 in 2020 dollars. Predating 2010, sexual abuse allegations were brought against the diocese who operated the St. Joseph Orphanage on North Avenue in Burlington for decades. It shut its doors in 1974. It was formerly managed by the Sisters of Providence. In the 1990s, more than 100 former St. Joseph's Orphanage residents stated that they were physically, sexually and emotionally abused by nuns, priests or lay staff workers in the 1940s, `50s and `60s. Abuses of the former residents included being tied to trees, whipped, locked in small boxes, raped, beaten, burned with cigarettes and matches, hung upside down outside windows, tossed into water to "sink or swim' and in some alleged instances, murdered. The diocese spent more than $300,000 to settle the claims of 60 orphans who lived in the orphanage in the 1950s and 1960s. Lawyers for the diocese had asked the court to throw out the lawsuits. Statements made by four nuns and two priests who worked at the orphanage weakened claims by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington that abuse charges could not be corroborated. Additionally, five out of eight priests at St. Joseph's were also accused of sexual abuse that accused in other litigations. The accused priests were Fathers Foster, Bresnehan, Devoy, Emile Savary, and Donald LaRouche, who ruled over St. Joseph's 39 years of existence. The grounds at St. Joseph's has long since been sold off by the Catholic church, and was recently purchased by a developer who converted it into several upscale condos and renamed it 'Liberty House.'^[20]

In August 2019, the Diocese of Burlington released the names of 40 clergy, out of 419 priests who had served in the state since 1950, who were "credibly accused" of committing acts of sex abuse, with most being deceased and none still in active ministry.^[9][21] Much of the named abuse occurred at St Josephs, and all but one of these named acts took place before the year 2000.^[9]

Deaneries[]

Number of Catholics in diocese^[22]

Year	Pop.	±% p.a.
1815	100	—
1843	4,940	+14.95%
1853	25,000	+17.60%
1881	6,000	−4.97%
1899	75,000	+15.06%
1980	157,000	+0.92%
2005	149,000	−0.21%
2010	118,000	−4.56%

There are twelve deaneries in the diocese.

1. Addison
2. Bennington
3. Burlington
4. Caledonia
5. Capitol
6. Franklin
7. Orleans
8. Rutland
9. South Burlington
10. Windham
11. Windsor
12. Winooski

Parishes[]

Bishops[]

Bishops of Burlington[]

1. Louis de Goesbriand (1853–1899)
2. John Stephen Michaud (1899–1908)
3. Joseph John Rice (1910–1938)
4. Matthew Francis Brady (1938–1944), appointed Bishop of Manchester
5. Edward Francis Ryan (1944–1956)
6. Robert Francis Joyce (1956–1971)
7. John Aloysius Marshall (1971–1992), appointed Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts
8. Kenneth Anthony Angell (1992–2005)
9. Salvatore Ronald Matano (2005–2014; coadjutor bishop 2005), appointed Bishop of Rochester
10. Christopher J. Coyne (2015–present)

Auxiliary Bishop of Burlington[]

• Robert Francis Joyce (1954-1956), appointed Bishop of Burlington

Other priests of this diocese who became Bishops[]

• Bernard Joseph Flanagan, appointed Bishop of Norwich in 1953
• Louis Edward Gelineau, appointed Bishop of Providence in 1971

Education[]

Lisa Lorenz is the superintendent of schools.^[23]

There are fifteen Catholic schools in Vermont.^[24][25]

4 secondary/high schools:

• Mount Saint Joseph Academy, Rutland
• Rice Memorial High School, South Burlington
• St. Michael's Catholic High School, Brattleboro
• St. Terese Digital Catholic Academy (online)

11 parochial/parish elementary/middle schools:^[26]

• St Monica St Michael School, formerly Central Vermont Catholic School (formerly St. Monica), Barre
• St. Paul's Catholic School, Barton
• Sacred Heart School, Bennington
• St. Michael School, Brattleboro
• Christ the King School, Burlington
• Mater Christi School (private), Burlington
• Bishop John A. Marshall (private), Morrisville
• Sacred Heart, Newport
• Christ the King School, Rutland
• Good Shepherd, St. Johnsbury
• St. Francis Xavier, Winooski^[27]

Student enrollment dropped 24% from 3,190 to 2,431 from 1999 to 2008.^[28]

Assets[]

In 2005, the Vermont diocese had net assets of $5,679,217. This figure includes assets acquired "at cost."^[29] An insurance company has estimated that it would cost $400 million to replace the physical assets of the diocese, including churches, schools, and nursing homes.^[30]

The Vermont Catholic Charities had total net assets of $3,874,935.^[31]

See also[]

Notables[]

• In 1808 Fanny Allen, daughter of General Ethan Allen, converted to the Catholic faith, and entered the novitiate of Hôtel-Dieu de Montréal, where she was received as a member of the order.
• Orestes Brownson, the noted Catholic author and philosopher, was a native of the state. He was born in Stockbridge in 1803.

Footnotes[]

External links[]

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Burlington Official Site
• Vermont Catholic Tribune