Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte

Before and during the American Revolutionary War, the Catholics in all of the British colonies in America were under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England. Discrimination and persecution of Catholics in the North Carolina colony was common until it became a royal colony in 1729. Anyone wanting to hold public office had to sign a oath stating that Protestantism was the true Christian faith.[6]

With the passage of the U.S. Constitution in 1789 after the American Revolution, Catholics were guaranteed freedom of worship throughout the new nation.

Pope Pius VI erected the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States in 1784, encompassing the entire United States. Five years later, he converted the prefecture into the Diocese of Baltimore.[7] The Diocese of Charleston was erected by Pope Pius VII on July 11, 1820. He removed the states of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina from what was now the Archdiocese of Baltimore[8]

During the early 19th century, Irish Catholic immigrants started entering North Carolina to work on the railroads and other construction projects. St. Peter's Church, founded in Charlotte in 1851, was the first permanent Catholic church in the region. Much of its funding came from Protestants, who were impressed by the preaching ability of the first priest, Reverend Jeremiah J. O'Connell.[9]

On March 3, 1868, Pope Pius IX erected the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina, removing North Carolina from the Diocese of Charleston. At that time, the pope appointed Reverend James Gibbons from the Archdiocese of Baltimore as the first vicar apostolic.

When Gibbons became vicar apostolic, North Carolina counted fewer than 700 Catholics. In his first four weeks in office, he traveled almost a thousand miles, visiting towns and mission stations and administering the sacraments. He also befriended many Protestants, who greatly outnumbered Catholics in the state, and preached at their churches. Gibbons made many converts to Catholicism.[10]In 1872, Pius IX appointed Gibbons as bishop of the Diocese of Richmond. The Vatican would not replace Gibbons in North Carolina for the next 11 years.

St. Benedict's Church was the first Catholic church in Greensboro, founded in 1877. It later received funding from Sister Katharine Drexel to guarantee seating for African Americans.

In 1876, Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, sent a party of Benedictine monks to Western North Carolina. They bought land outside of Charlotte and started a new priory. Eight years later, Pope Leo XIII elevated the priory to an abbey, known as Belmont Abbey, on December 19, 1884.[11] At that time, the monks elected Father Leo Haid as their first abbot. in 1882, Leo XIII appointed Henry P. Northrop from the Diocese of Charleston as the new vicar apostolic of North Carolina. Northrop resigned from this post in 1888 to serve full time as bishop of Charleston.

On February 4, 1888, Pope Leo XIII appointed Haid to also serve as apostolic vicar of North Carolina.[12] Haid was consecrated in Baltimore on July 1, 1888. Pope Pius X later designated Belmont Abbey as a territorial abbey. He transferred eight counties in Western North Carolina (which today make up the Diocese of Charlotte) from the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina to Belmont Abbey. This made Belmont a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Baltimore. This decision created two particular churches united in the person of their ordinary, neither of which was a diocese. This arrangement endured until Haid's death on July 24, 1924.[13]

On December 12, 1924, Pope Pius XI elevated the Apostolic Vicariate of North Carolina into the Diocese of Raleigh. It became the first Catholic diocese in the state.[14] The pope appointed Reverend William Hafey of the Archdiocese of Baltimore as its first bishop. In 1937, Pius XI named Hafey as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Scranton. To replace Hafey as bishop of Raleigh, the pope appointed Reverend Eugene J. McGuinness from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that same year. Pope Pius XII transferred seven counties from Belmont Abbey to the new diocese on April 17, 1944. Later in 1944, Pius XII named McGuiness as the new bishop of the Diocese of Oklahoma City.

Pius XII appointed Vincent Waters from the Diocese of Richmond as the new bishop of the Diocese of Raleigh in 1944. Waters was accused by some of the diocesan clergy of holding on to idle church property worth millions of dollars while some parishes were in debt.[15] He also denied requests for the creation of a priests' senate, and had his resignation requested by around twenty percent of the clergy.[15]In 1953, a year before Brown v. Board of Education decision by the US Supreme Court, Waters ordered the desegregation of all Catholic churches and schools in the diocese.[16][17] He described racial segregation as a product of "darkness," and declared that "the time has come for it to end."[18] He also said,

"I am not unmindful, as a Southerner, of the force of this virus of prejudice among some persons in the South, as well as in the North. I know, however, that there is a cure for this virus, and that is our faith."[19]

Pope John XXIII transferred Gaston County from Belmont Abbey to the diocese in July 1960.[20] Although it remained a territorial abbey, Belmont only had jurisdiction now over the abbey grounds.[21]On February 10, 1962, John XXIII elevated the Diocese of Atlanta to the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He transferred the Diocese of Raleigh and Belmont Abbey from the Archdiocese of Baltimore to the new archdiocese.

Pope Paul VI erected the Diocese of Charlotte on November 12, 1971. The new diocese contained Belmont Abbey and the counties previously under its jurisdiction from the Diocese of Raleigh. The Diocese of Charlotte was designated a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. When the new diocese was established, the Catholic population of the area was just over 34,000.

The first bishop of Charlotte was Reverend Michael Begley, a priest from the Diocese of Raleigh, who was installed on January 12, 1972.[22]Paul VI transferred Belmont Abbey into the Diocese of Charlotte, ending its status as a territorial abbey on January 1, 1977. Begley served as bishop until his retirement in May 1984.[14] Pope John Paul II appointed Reverend John Donoghue from the Archdiocese of Washington as the second bishop of Charlotte on November 5, 1984, with his installation on December 18, 1984.[22] The Catholic population in Charlotte continued to grow, leading Donoghue declared in the early 1990's that it would be the Decade of Evangelization.[14] In 1993, John Paul II appointed him as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Atlanta.

Donoghue was succeeded as bishop of Charlotte by Auxiliary Bishop William G. Curlin from the Archdiocese of Washington on April 13, 1994.[22] Curtin started the first affordable housing initiative in the diocese and concentrated on ministry to the elderly, sick and dying.[23] As bishop, Curlin continued his ministry to the poor, ordained 28 men to the priesthood and opened numerous Churches throughout the diocese. On June 13, 1995, Curlin invited Mother Teresa to speak at the Charlotte Coliseum, drawing a crowd of over 19,000. In 1995, Curlin stated that any priest in the diocese who had been accused of sexual abuse of a minor would be immediately removed from ministry.[24]Curlin served until his retirement on September 10, 2002. By 2002, the diocese had grown to approximately 87,000 Catholics.

On August 1, 2003, John Paul II appointed Monsignor Peter J. Jugis, judicial vicar of the Diocese of Charlotte, as its fourth bishop. He was consecrated on October 24, 2003.[22] Jugis is the current bishop of Charlotte.

In 2009, Robert Yurgel, a former priest at St. Matthew's Parish, was arrested after pleading guilty to second-degree sexual offense of a minor.[35] Yurgel had sexually abused a 14-year-old altar boy in 1999. In February 2009, Yurgel pleaded guilty to child molestation and was sentenced to seven years in state prison.[36] He was dismissed from the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin and laicized in 2000. The victim sued Yurgel and the Diocese of Charlotte. The case was settled for $1 million in damages and an additional $40,000 to pay for the victim's therapy. Yurgel was released from prison in August 2016.[37] On December 14, 2020, a California man filed a lawsuit against the diocese, claiming that Robert Yurgel had sexually abused him when he was five to seven years old at St. Mathew's Parish in the late 1990s.[38]

On August 14, 2018, a grand jury report released by the Pennsylvania attorney general named 301 priests responsible for allegedly abusing over 1,000 children within six Pennsylvania dioceses over 70 years. One of them was Robert Spangenberg, a Spiritan priest who served in the Dioceses of Charlotte and Raleigh. Spangenberg was a pastor at St. James Parish in Hamlet, North Carolina, in the 1990s. David Hains, diocese spokesperson, stated that the Diocese of Charlotte never received any concerns from Congregation of the Holy Spirit about Spangenberg's behavior in Pennsylvania, and that there had been no complaints about him in North Carolina.[39]

On March 25, 2019, the diocese announced that Monsignor Mauricio West, its vicar general and chancellor, had resigned from his posts. The diocese had received allegations against West of unwanted sexual advances towards an adult student at Belmont Abbey College in the 1980s. Taking a leave of absence, West denied all the accusations. The Lay Review Board of the diocese found these allegations to be credible.[40] In November 2019, four more complaints of sexual misconduct were lodged against West. Two of the accusations came from diocese employees, the other two from Belmont students.[41]

On April 14, 2020, two sex abuse lawsuits were filed against the diocese. The plaintiffs alleged that the diocese shielded two credibly accused priests, Richard Farwell and Joseph Kelleher.[42] The lawsuits were filed previously, but both were dismissed due to the previous statute of limitations.[42] The plaintiffs were able to sue again because of the 2019 changes to state law.

• The Kelleher lawsuit was filed by a Georgia man who claimed that Kelleher sexual assaulted him multiple times when he was a teenager between 1977 and 1978. A judged dismissed the 2010 lawsuit due to the passing of the statute of limitations. Another judge dismissed a 2014 criminal case because Kelleher had been diagnosed with dementia.[42]
• The Farwell lawsuit was filed by a North Carolina man who was a teenager in 1977. He alleged that Farwell started abusing him after he went to the priest for counseling. The plaintiff file a lawsuit against Farwell in 2011, but it was dismissed due to the statute of limitations. Farwell was later accused by a second man. Farwell was later convicted of contributing to the delinquency of a minor, sentenced to probation, and removed from ministry in 2005.[42][43]

In November 2021, the diocese was sued by man who claimed he had been sexually assaulted by Donald Baker, a diocese priest, in the 1980s. The plaintiff had made his accusation to the diocese in 2017. Baker left the ministry in 1994 and is on the list of diocese priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.

• Charlotte Catholic High School (Charlotte)
• Christ the King Catholic High School (Huntersville)
• Canongate Catholic High School (Arden)[45]

• Holy Trinity Catholic Middle School

• Our Lady of Assumption Catholic School
• St. Mark Catholic School

• St. Ann Catholic School (PK, TK-5)
• St. Gabriel Catholic School (K-5)
• St. Matthew Catholic School (TK-5)
• St. Patrick Catholic School (K-5)

• Bishop McGuinness Catholic High School (Kernersville)[46]

• Asheville Catholic School (Asheville)
• Immaculata Catholic School (Hendersonville)
• Our Lady of Mercy Catholic School (Winston-Salem)
• St. Leo Catholic School (Winston-Salem)
• Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic School (High Point)
• Sacred Heart Catholic School (Salisbury)
• St. Michael Catholic School (Gastonia)
• St. Pius X Catholic School (Greensboro)
• Our Lady of Grace Catholic School (Greensboro)[46]