If you spent most of today wondering why you kept seeing people who looked like they hadn't washed their face in a while, it's Ash Wednesday (that or you live or work in an area where personal hygiene isn't a priority). Among the things that means, perhaps the least important is the debut of:

Lentorama 2012: Know Your Diocese! 


Forty days, forty blurbs about administrative districts of the Catholic church. And in true Catholic fashion, I'm doing something based on an idea that was popular several years ago (feel free to refer to this comment in 2289, when priests are finally allowed to marry).

So, as the hip kids of the Vatican like to say, sit scriptor adepto eam coepi!


Day 1: Archdiocese of Baltimore


Prior to independence, American Catholics fell under the jurisdiction of a vicariate in London (Britain having no diocese of their own at the time, thanks to all the unpleasantness with and following the formation of the Church of England). Roughly two months after the Treaty of Paris was signed, a group of Maryland clergy asked the Vatican to create a superior to be in charge of the various missionary groups in the US. That got the OK the following year, and in 1789 Baltimore was officially made a diocese, giving it authority over all Catholics in US states and territories.


I'll admit to being surprised when I first learned that Baltimore was the first diocese in the US. It's not the first city you'd think of when you think of American Catholics, and probably wouldn't be the second or third. So how did they get the nod, other than having clergy who got the ball rolling?


Maryland was planned and founded by successive Lord Baltimores, George and Cecilius Calvert. Both men were Catholic, and named the colony for the Catholic wife of Charles I. It was one of the few places in colonial America where Catholics could practice openly, and thus attracted large numbers of Catholic immigrants well before cities like Boston, New York and Chicago.


Not that it always went smoothly. The Jesuits that accompanies the original settlers established themselves pretty quickly, getting land from natives and pushing for various exemptions from duty and taxes that were levied on other settlers. Calvert was able to have non-Jesuit priests sent over and brokered some sort of truce that allowed everyone to operate in peace - just in time for the Puritans to show up and take over the government. Then the English crown made Maryland a royal colony in 1692 and forced the C of E on the locals, who were largely forbidden to practice their original faith.


Baltimore does have two pretty neat distinctions. First, the archbishop of Baltimore has "prerogative of place" over all other American archbishops whenever they are in some sort of meeting, regardless of seniority. He does not get to boss around cardinals, however (even if he is a cardinal archbishop). The other distinction is that there are two cathedrals in the city of Baltimore, making it only one of three US cities to have this. The other two are Honolulu and Burlington, Vermont. So maybe it's not that neat of a distinction.