The Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts (Latin: Diœcesis Campifontis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Western Massachusetts in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Boston.
The mother church of the diocese is St. Michael's Cathedral in Springfield. As of 2024, the bishop is William Draper Byrne.
== Territory ==
The Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts comprises Berkshire, Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden Counties.
== History ==
=== 1700 to 1870 ===
During the 17th and early 18th centuries, the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, which included present-day Springfield, enacted laws prohibiting the practice of Catholicism in the colony. It was even illegal for a priest to reside there.
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 alliance with Catholic France fostered a more favorable attitude among Americans towards Catholicism. The Constitution of the new Commonwealth of Massachusetts, written by future US President John Adams and ratified in 1780, established religious freedom for Catholics in the new state. With the Massachusetts constitution being the first state constitution in the United States, its framework of government became a model for the constitutions of other states and, eventually, for the federal constitution.
After the Revolution ended in 1783, Pope Pius VI moved to remove American Catholics from the jurisdiction of the Diocese of London. He erected in 1784 the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, encompassing the entire territory of the new nation. Pius VI created the Diocese of Baltimore, the first diocese in the United States, to replace the prefecture apostolic in 1789.
Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Boston in 1808, removing all of New England from the Diocese of Baltimore. The Western Massachusetts region would remain part of the Diocese of Boston for the next 62 years. In 1830, St. Joseph's Church was founded in Springfield; it was the first Catholic church in western Massachusetts. The first Catholic church in Chicopee was St. Matthew's, constructed in 1838. St. Joseph Parish was established in 1849, the first parish in Pittsfield.In Holyoke, St. Jerome Parish was erected in 1854, the first parish in that community.
=== 1870 to 1920 ===
On June 14, 1870, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Springfield. He removed Berkshire, Franklin, Hampden, Hampshire, and Worcester counties from the Diocese of Boston, making the new diocese a suffragan of the Archdiocese of New York. Pius IX appointed Patrick O'Reilly from the Diocese of Boston as the first bishop of the new diocese.
During O'Reilly's time as bishop, the Catholic population of the diocese increased from 90,000 to 200,000; its priests from 43 to 196; its religious women from 12 to 321. O'Reilly laid the cornerstones of nearly 100 churches, schools and other buildings. In 1873, the Sisters of Charity of the House of Providence established the House of Providence Hospital in Holyoke. O'Reilly opened orphanages in Holyoke and Worcester. O'Reilly persuaded the Sisters of Charity and the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to set up congregations in the diocese. The Sisters of Providence in 1874 opened the House of Mercy Hospital in Springfield. Today it is Mercy Medical Center.
In 1875, Pius IX elevated the Diocese of Boston to the Archdiocese of Boston. He transferred the Diocese of Springfield from the Archdiocese of New York to the new archdiocese. In 1883, O'Reilly established Cathedral High School in Springfield, with nuns from the Sisters of St. Joseph in New York City providing the faculty. O’Reilly died on May 28, 1892. Pope Leo XIII appointed Reverend Thomas Beaven as O'Reilly's replacement.
In addition to French and Irish parishes, Beaven established churches in the diocese for Polish, Italian, Lithuanian, Slovakian and Maronite Rite Catholics. In 1892, Beaven purchased a farm in Holyoke to become the Holy Family Institute at Brightside, a boys orphanage and school.
During his tenure, the Sisters of Providence opened the Beaven-Kelly Home for senior men; a home for abandoned infants; a House of the Good Shepherd at Springfield; and several residences for single working women. In 1897, the Sisters of St. Joseph moved into Mont Marie, their new motherhouse in Springfield. The Sisters of Providence in 1900 opened Farren Memorial Hospital in Montague, named after the industrialist Bernard N. Farren. Beaven died in 1920.
=== 1920 to 1950 ===
Pope Benedict XV in 1921 named Thomas O'Leary from the Diocese of Manchester as the new bishop of Springfield. During his tenure, he introduced the Passionists to the diocese and opened 24 new parishes. Pope Pius XI in October 1923 renamed the Diocese of Springfield as the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts. This was to avoid confusion with the newly erected Diocese of Springfield in Illinois.St. Luke's Hospital in Pittsfield was opened by the Sisters of Providence in 1926.Today it is Berkshire Medical Center.
In 1928, O'Leary began planning the new Our Lady of the Elms College in Chicopee to be first Catholic college for women in western Massachusetts. O'Leary died in 1949.
When Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Worcester in January 1950, he removed Worcester County from the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts. This action established the present territory of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts. That same month, Pius XII appointed Christopher Weldon of New York as its new bishop.
=== 1950 to 2004 ===
During his tenure, Weldon oversaw the construction of Our Lady of Lourdes School in Springfield. The Sisters of Providence added a wing to Farren Memorial Hospital. Weldon erected ten new parishes, and constructed 11 new churches and several parish centers. He established a center for the Hispanic apostolate in Springfield, and a diocesan newspaper in 1954. Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Maguire of Boston was named coadjutor bishop in 1976 by Pope Paul VI to assist Weldon.
When Weldon retired in 1977, Maguire automatically succeeded him as the next bishop. As bishop, Maguire created a program to train permanent deacons for parish service. He also established the Apostolate for Black Catholics. He recruited 300 lay members from the diocese to visit the sick and disabled at home or in institutions. Maguire retired as bishop of Springfield in 1991.
Pope John Paul II named Bishop John Marshall from the Diocese of Burlington as the sixth bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts in 1992. Marshall died two years later; the pope then appointed Auxiliary Bishop Thomas Dupré in 1995 as the next bishop of the diocese. He retired as bishop of Springfield in 2004.
=== 2004 to present ===
In 2004, John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop Timothy A. McDonnell of New York as the eighth bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts.
On May 13, 2004, McDonnell liquidated a diocesan fund designed to help priests accused of sexual misconduct. Dupré had set up the fund late 2003. Its existence had provoked conflict between McDonnell and one of his parish priests, James Scahill. Scahill had been withholding part of the parish collection to protest continued diocese support of Reverend Richard Lavigne, a priest convicted of child molestation in 1992. During a heated exchange at a council meeting, McDonnell accused Scahill of calling him a "Vatican lackey". When Scahill denied it, McDonnell said that he was worse than Lavigne and dismissed him from the meeting Scahill and McDonnell later reconciled their differences. By 2010, 65 churches had been closed, with 13 of those buildings housing new congregations created by mergers. McDonnell was responsible for the majority of these parish closures. He retired as bishop of Springfield in 2014.Auxiliary Bishop Mitchell T. Rozanski of Baltimore was the next bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts, selected by Pope Francis in 2014.
In December 2019, Rozanski banned the Pioneer Valley Gay Men's Chorus from singing in a Christmas caroling concert at St. Theresa's of Lisieux Parish in South Hadley. Francis appointed Rozanski as archbishop of the Archdiocese of St. Louis in 2020. To replaced Rozanski, Francis that same year named William Draper Byrne from the Archdiocese of Washington.
=== Sexual abuse ===
In 1992, Lavigne pleaded guilty to two counts of child sexual abuse. He soon became a suspect in the 1972 murder of 13-year-old Danny Croteau, whose body was found floating in the Connecticut River in Chicopee. However, police never found sufficient evidence to indict Lavigne in Croteau's murder. In May 2021, the dying Lavigne admitted to a Massachusetts State Police detective that he had seen Croteau's body floating down the river, but claimed he did not kill him. After the interview, prosecutors were ready to indict him, however, Lavigne died the next day.
A priest named Warren Savage propositioned sex with a woman he was counseling, Nancy Dunn, promising the sex could cure her lesbianism. They began to have sex in 1995. Dunn complained to a diocesan review board in 1997, which agreed she was the target of "sexual exploitation" and recommended Savage "be removed from his priestly duties and parish work immediately." However, Warren Savage remains in active ministry at Westfield State University as of 2023. The diocese holds that Dunn was not a "vulnerable adult" under its rules regarding sexual misbehavior.
In September 2004, Bishop Dupré was indicted by a Hampden County grand jury on two counts of child molestation. He became the first Catholic bishop ever to be indicted in the United States for sexual abuse. However, the Springfield district attorney was forced to drop the charges because the statute of limitations on such crimes had expired.
In 2012, it was revealed that Maguire and Dupré had approved a $500,000 settlement in a sexual abuse case. The plaintiff, Andrew Nicastro, claimed that he was sexually abused as a minor by Alfred F. Graves, a diocesan priest, from 1982 to 1985. According to the lawsuit, Maguire had transferred Graves to another parish after receiving a sexual abuse accusation against Graves in 1976. The diocese barred Graves from ministry in the 1990s and he was laicized by the Vatican in 2006.
In September 2018, a diocesan review board notified Bishop Rozanski that it had found an allegation of sexual abuse by Bishop Weldon to be credible. The board cited a Chicopee resident who said that Weldon had abused him as a minor. The board later split on the case, with several members saying that the victim did not name Weldon directly, while three others present maintained they had witnessed otherwise. In June 2019, Rozanski met with the victim, saying he found the allegations "deeply troubling". In June 2020, an investigation by retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis found the victim's claim "to be unequivocally credible." Rozanski then asked Trinity Health of New England to remove Weldon's name from its rehabilitation center in Montague. The diocese disinterred Weldon's remains and moved them to more secluded spot in the cemetery. Rozanski ordered the removal of all photographs, memorials and other mentions of Weldon from all diocesan facilities.
In February 2019, a news report stated that diocese had received 15 complaints of sexual abuse in 2018. On May 27, 2020, the diocese formed an independent task force to advise the bishop on allegations of sexual abuse. In June 2020, an independent investigation found the allegations against Weldon to be credible.
Both Weldon and Dupré were later alleged to have perpetrated sexual abuse of a minor or minors and to have covered up the Croteau murder by Lavigne.
After waiting over two decades, a woman who identified as a clergy abuse victim from the diocese saw the name of her abuser, Reverend Daniel Gill, added to the inventory of "credibly accused" priests; Gill had served at five churches in Hampden and Berkshire counties.
In 2021, a former altar server in Chicopee sued the diocese, claiming it covered up his sexual abuse. In July 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts rejected the diocesan claim that the church was protected by charitable immunity and denied its motion for a dismissal. The court based this decision on the argument that sexual assault against children does not "involve conduct related to a charitable mission."
In 2022, the diocese faced another lawsuit in Hampden Superior Court from an 84 year-old Chicopee woman over allegations her parish priest grabbed her butt during a mass in 2019. The lawsuit stated that she made a report to the Franciscan order and to the diocese, speaking with Jeffrey Trant, director of the Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance. No charges were brought forward. The lawsuit claimed assault and battery, infliction of emotional distress, negligent supervision and negligent hiring from the diocese.
== Bishops ==
=== Bishops of Springfield (1870 to 1923) ===
Patrick Thomas O'Reilly (1870–1892)
Thomas Daniel Beaven (1892–1920)
Thomas Michael O'Leary (1921–1949)
=== Bishops of Springfield in Massachusetts (1923 to present) ===
Thomas Michael O'Leary (1921–1949)
Christopher Joseph Weldon (1950–1977)
Joseph Francis Maguire (1977–1992; coadjutor bishop 1976–1977)
John Aloysius Marshall (1992–1994)
Thomas Ludger Dupré (1995–2004)
Timothy Anthony McDonnell (2004–2014)
Mitchell Thomas Rozanski (2014–2020), appointed Archbishop of St. Louis
William Draper Byrne (2020–present)
=== Auxiliary bishops ===
Leo Edward O'Neil (1980–1989), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Manchester and subsequently succeeded to that see
Thomas Ludger Dupré (1990–1995), appointed Bishop of Springfield in Massachusetts (see above)
=== Other diocesan priests who became bishops ===
Daniel Francis Feehan, appointed Bishop of Fall River in 1907
Joseph John Rice, appointed Bishop of Burlington in 1910
Joseph Francis McGrath, appointed Bishop of Baker City in 1918
William Augustine Hickey, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Providence in 1919 and subsequently succeeded to that see
Timothy Joseph Harrington, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Worcester in 1968
=== Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance ===
Jeffrey Trant (appointed 2019, resigned in 2022)
Norman Charest (interim 2022–2023)
Michael Collins (appointed 2023)
== Significant church buildings ==
The Basilica of St. Stanislaus in Chicopee is located within the Diocese of Springfield.
== Education ==
=== High schools ===
Pope Francis Preparatory School – Springfield
Saint Mary High School – Westfield
=== Closed schools ===
Cathedral High School – Springfield (merged with Holyoke Catholic High School to create Pope Francis Preparatory School)
Holyoke Catholic High School – Chicopee
St. Joseph Central High School – Pittsfield (closed 2017)
== See also ==
== References ==
== Further reading ==
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Springfield" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
== External links ==
Official website
Diocese profile at Catholic-Hierarchy.org