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The Diocese of Providence () is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Rhode Island in the United States. Erected in 1872, it is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Hartford. The Cathedral of SS. Peter and Paul in Providence is the mother church of the diocese. Bruce Lewandowski is the bishop.

History

1643 to 1830

During the 17th and most of the 18th century, present-day Rhode was a British colony. When the Baptist minister Roger Williams founded the colony of Providence Plantations in 1643, he enacted religious tolerance there for all Christians. This was in contrast to the other American colonies, which restricted Catholic worship and the legal rights of Catholics. However, by 1719, the Rhode Island General Assembly had enacted a law disenfranchising Catholics from voting to discourage any from moving to the colony.

With the start of the American Revolutionary War in 1776, attitudes towards Catholics shifted in the American colonies. The rebel leaders needed to gain the support of Catholics for their cause. In addition, the American alliance with Catholic France fostered a more favorable attitude among Americans towards Catholicism. During the revolution, a French army camped in Newport and Providence. The first Catholic masses in Providence Plantations were celebrated there for these soldiers. After the revolution, the new State of Rhode Island in 1783 allowed Catholics to vote and removed all other restrictions against them.

In 1789, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Baltimore to cover the entire territory of the new United States. The construction of Fort Adams in Newport in 1799 and the establishment of cotton mills in Pawtucket started attracting Irish Catholic immigrants to Rhode Island. After the 1803 uprising by enslaved peoples in the French colony of Guadeloupe, several French families migrated to Bristol and Providence. In 1808, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Boston, covering Rhode Island and the rest of New England. The first Catholic church in Rhode Island was established in 1828 in Newport to minister to Catholics working at Fort Adams.

1830 to 1872

By the early 19th century, resentment was beginning to build in many areas of the United States due to the rising number of Catholic immigrants from Ireland and Europe. In the 1830s, John Corry, a diocesan priest, started looking for a plot of land to build the first Catholic church in Providence. However, many landowners were unwilling to sell him any land. Corry eventually obtained a property and starting building Saints Peter and Paul Church, which was dedicated in 1838.

In 1843, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Hartford, which included both Connecticut and Rhode Island. The pope selected Monsignor William Tyler of Boston as the first bishop of Hartford. At the time, only 600 Catholics lived in Hartford, Connecticut, as opposed to 2,000 in Providence. For that reason, Tyler petitioned the Vatican to move the diocesan see from Hartford to Providence. The oldest existing Catholic church in Rhode Island, St. Mary's, was founded in West Warwick in 1844.Tyler died in Providence on June 18, 1849, at age 45.

The Sisters of Mercy in 1852 opened the St. Xavier Academy, the first orphanage in Providence. Three years later, flyers written by anti-Catholic activists appeared around Providence, promoting an attack on the orphanage. Catholic leaders marshalled a force of 400 to guard the home until the threat passed.

1872 to 1887

On February 16, 1872, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Providence, taking all of Rhode Island from the Diocese of Hartford. The pope also included several parts of Massachusetts, including the islands of Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, Cape Cod, and the Fall River area in the new diocese. The pope named Thomas Hendricken of Hartford as the first bishop of Providence. The new diocese had 125,000 parishioners, 43 churches, nine parish schools and one orphanage.

During Hendricken's tenure, French-Canadian Catholics started migrating into the diocese to work in the textile mills in Woonsocket and Fall River, Massachusetts. Hendricken created 13 English-speaking parishes and two French-speaking parishes during this time. By 1873, the immigration into the diocese slowed and the post-war boom ended with many of his flock unemployed or on reduced wages. Hendricken oversaw the design and construction of the Cathedral of SS Peter and Paul.

Four religious sisters from the Little Sisters of the Poor arrived in Pawtucket in 1881. With $160,000 in funding from the Irish industrialist Joseph Banigan, they were able to open the Holy Trinity Home, a residence for the elderly.

1887 to 1900

After Hendricken died in 1886, Pope Leo XIII in 1887 named Matthew Harkins of Boston as the next bishop of Providence.The Rhode Island branch of the Society of St. Vincent de Paul (SVDP) in 1890 opened the St. Vincent de Paul Infant Asylum in Providence.

St. Joseph's Hospital in Providence was dedicated in 1892. In 1894, the Banigan family financed the construction of St. Maria Working Girls' Home in Providence, a residence for female domestic servants.The Home for Working Boys was started in Providence in 1897. Nazareth Home in Providence opened in 1906. The SVDP opened an orphanage in 1915 in Woonsocket.

Due to Harkins's advancing age and declining health, the Vatican appointed two auxiliary bishops to the diocese between 1914 and 1917. In 1919, the pope named William Hickey from the Diocese of Worcester as coadjutor bishop in 1919. In 1924, the dissidents founded the newspaper to express their opposition to Hickey's plan. The dissidents became known as Sentinellists.

In 1927, Hickey excommunicated Daignault and other Sentinellists and placed on the . Eventually, Daignault and the others recanted their opposition to Hickey and he lifted their excommunications. During the Great Depression, Keough assigned chaplains to Civilian Conservation Corps work crews in Rhode Island. In 1939, he purchased the Nelson W. Aldrich estate at Warwick Neck; it had suffered damage in the 1938 New England hurricane. Keough erected the Our Lady of Providence Seminary on the Aldrich estate in 1941.In 1947, real estate developer Robert Wilson Goelet donated his family estate, Ochre Court in Newport, to the Sisters of Mercy. They founded Salve Regina University there.

During Keough's tenure as bishop, the Catholic population of the diocese increased from 325,000 to 425,000, and the number of clergy grew by fifty percent. He also founded a minor seminary, eased tensions between the French- and English-speaking parishioners, and reduced the heavy debt load of the diocese. Keough was named archbishop of Baltimore in 1947. During his tenure in Providence, McVinney established 28 new parishes, and in 1950 opened Our Lady of Fatima Hospital in North Providence. In 1952, McVinney issued regulations that forbade Catholics from participating in divorce proceedings or attending weddings performed by non-Catholic clergy.

1960 to 1990

Following the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s, McVinney created one of the first diocesan ecumenical commissions in 1965. He also established the Catholic Inner City Apostolate in 1966 and the diocesan human relations commission in 1967. McLaughlin responded that he did not need McVinney's permission to run for office. McLaughlin also noted that the bishop was "lifelong friends" with McLaughlin's political opponent, Senator John O. Pastore. McLaughlin lost the race.

1990 to present

Pope John Paul II appointed Bishop Robert Mulvee from the Diocese of Wilmington as coadjutor bishop of Providence in 1995 to assist Gélineau. After Gélineau retired as bishop of Providence in 1997, Mulvee automatically succeeded him. Mulvee retired as bishop of Providence in 2005.

The next bishop of Providence was Bishop Thomas Tobin from the Diocese of Youngstown, named by John Paul II in 2005. In 2022, Pope Francis appointed Bishop Richard Henning from the Diocese of Rockville Centre as coadjutor bishop of Providence. When Tobin retired as bishop of Providence in 2023, Henning automatically succeeded him. On August 5, 2024, Henning was appointed the next archbishop of Boston.

In May 2026, the diocese announced the mergers and closures of several parishes due to the shortage of priests, declining memberships in the parishes and the deterioration of older churches.

Bishops

Bishops of Providence

  1. Thomas Francis Hendricken (1872–1886)
  2. Matthew Harkins (1887–1921)
  3. William A. Hickey (1921–1933)
  4. Francis Patrick Keough (1934–1947), appointed Archbishop of Baltimore
  5. Russell Joseph McVinney (1948–1971)
  6. Louis Edward Gelineau (1972–1997)
  7. Robert Edward Mulvee (1997–2005; coadjutor bishop 1995–1997)
  8. Thomas Joseph Tobin (2005–2023)
  9. Richard Garth Henning (2023–2024), appointed Archbishop of Boston
  10. Bruce Lewandowski (2025-present)

Auxiliary bishops

  • Thomas Francis Doran (1915–1916)
  • Denis Matthew Lowney (1917–1918)
  • Thomas Francis Maloney (1960–1962)
  • Bernard Matthew Kelly (1964–1971)
  • Kenneth Anthony Angell (1974–1992), appointed Bishop of Burlington
  • Robert Joseph McManus (1999–2004), appointed Bishop of Worcester
  • Robert C. Evans (2009–2022)

Other diocesan priests who became bishops

  • Lawrence Stephen McMahon, appointed Bishop of Hartford in 1879
  • Austin Dowling, appointed Bishop of Des Moines in 1912
  • Ernest Bertrand Boland, appointed Bishop of Multan in Pakistan in 1966
  • Daniel Patrick Reilly, appointed Bishop of Norwich, Connecticut, in 1975 and Bishop of Worcester in 1994
  • Francis Xavier Roque, appointed Auxiliary Bishop for the Military Services, USA in 1983
  • Salvatore Ronald Matano, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Burlington in 2005 and subsequently succeeded to that diocese; later appointed Bishop of Rochester
  • James T. Ruggieri, appointed Bishop of Portland in 2024

Education

High schools

  • Bishop Hendricken High School – Warwick
  • La Salle Academy – Providence
  • Mount Saint Charles Academy – Woonsocket
  • The Prout School – South Kingstown
  • St. Mary Academy – Bay View – East Providence
  • St. Patrick Academy – Providence
  • St. Raphael Academy – Pawtucket

Independent

  • Portsmouth Abbey School – Portsmouth

Parishes

Publications

Established in 1875, the Rhode Island Catholic is the official newspaper of the Diocese of Providence. It is published weekly.

Reports of sex abuse

The Diocese of Providence reached a $13.2 million settlement in 2002 with 36 victims of sexual abuse by its clergy.

In 2003, Christopher Young sued the diocese, claiming that he had been sexually abused as a minor by John Petrocelli, former assistant pastor at Holy Family Parish in Woonsocket. Petrocelli was removed from ministry in 2002. The diocese won the case in lower court, citing the free exercise and establishment clauses of the First Amendment, which prohibited judges from interfering with the practise of religion. The lower court ruling was overturned on appeal, with the judge ruling that the diocese's failure to supervise a pedophile priest was not a matter of religion.

In July 2019, the diocese released a list of 50 clerics, religious order priests and deacons with credible accusations of sexual abuse. Many individuals on the list had been removed from ministry between 1971 and 2016; some were removed after they left the diocese.

James Jackson, pastor at St. Mary’s Church in Providence and a member of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, was arrested in October 2021 on child pornography charges. Over 12,000 images and 1,500 videos were found on his devices. After accepting a plea agreement, Jackson was sentenced to six years in federal prison.

In March 2026, Rhode Island Attorney General Peter F. Neronha released a report on sexual abuse offenses commited by priests in the diocese. It accused diocesan leaders of covering up sexual abuse for years and failing to remove offenders from access to children. The report uncovered 75 diocesan and religious order priests with credible allegations of sexual abuse of children.

Arms

References

  • Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence Official Site
  • Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul
  • Rhode Island Catholic – diocesan newspaper