Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Hartford is a particular church of the Latin Rite in Hartford, Litchfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut. The archdiocese includes about 700,000 Catholics, more than 500 priests, 216 parishes and almost 300 deacons. This is roughly one-half the population of the three counties. It also publishes The Catholic Transcript.

History

The present territory of the archdiocese of Hartford was originally part of the Diocese of Boston until Bishop Benedict Joseph Fenwick of Boston expressed concern that there should be separate dioceses for Connecticut and Rhode Island in keep with the growing Catholic population in those states.

On November 28, 1843, the Diocese of Hartford was established by Pope Gregory XVI with Reverend Willam Tyler as its first bishop. At the time of its creation, there were 10,000 Catholics in the area. Bishop Tyler was able to petition successfully to move the See of Hartford to Providence, Rhode Island in order to be nearer to the majority of the Catholics. Having served for 5 years, Bishop Tyler died in 1849. The second bishop, Reverend Bernard O'Reilly, spent his time securing priests for the still young diocese all the while helping to curb the anti-Catholic movements of the time propagated by the Know Nothing Party. On January 1856, O'Reilly was lost at sea onboard the ship......
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