The Catholic Church is headed by the Pope at the Vatican, its headquarters, St. Peter’s Basilica which is the largest church building in the world. Its members are considered to have attained the most wealth among all religious believers in the United States. The Catholic Church in the United States has a total of 196 particular churches — consisting of 32 territorial archdioceses, 144 territorial dioceses, the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA, and the Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of Saint Peter within the Roman Rite; and two archeparchies and 16 eparchies in the Eastern Catholic Churches — in the 50 United States and the US Virgin Islands. When a diocese is suppressed or when the diocesan see is transferred to another location, the title of the former see becomes available for assignment to a titular bishop or, in the case of an archdiocese, a titular archbishop or an archbishop Ecclesiastical Province of Saint Paul and MinneapolisEcclesiastical Province of Saint Paul and Minneapolis The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.Let our news meet your inbox. In the Catholic Church, a diocese is divided into parishes, which altogether cover the entire of America. The Catholic Church is the oldest and richest church in the world and is by far the richest religious institution in history worth more than $150 billion financially. The Roman Catholic Diocese of Gallup, New Mexico, plans to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy this month to cope with mounting costs of litigation arising from claims of child sexual abuse by members of its clergy, the church confirmed on Tuesday.The Gallup Diocese, which includes several Native American reservations, would become the ninth U.S. diocese or archdiocese to file for bankruptcy protection since 2004 in financial fallout from child molestation cases against the church.Child sex abuse litigation has cost the U.S. Catholic Church some $3 billion in settlements in the two decades since the ongoing scandal erupted with a series of molestation cases uncovered in Boston in 1992.In a letter read to parishioners over the weekend, Gallup Bishop James S. Wall denied that the diocese was filing for Chapter 11 "to avoid responsibility for what happened or to hide anything.
The pastor of an ordinariate, titled the "ordinary" (which is a term also used generically for the pastor of any particular church), may be either a bishop if celibate, or a presbyter (priest) if married, but he holds the same power of governance of his ordinariate that a bishop has of his diocese in either case; In the Catholic Church, there are many bishops who do not govern dioceses: The table above is generated with the most recent data available for each diocese. Covering 53 parishes in a geographic area of more than 55,000 square miles, Gallup ranks as the poorest diocese in the United States, according to the diocese spokesman, the Rev.
Tim Farrell.Farrell said he could not put a dollar figure on how much potential liability the diocese faced from the 15 to 20 sex abuse cases pending against it, "but it's more than we have.
United States of America and Canada (Armenian) (Apostolic Exarchate), New York; Historical, see Our Lady of Nareg in Glendale (Armenian) (Eparchy), California Upper Michigan (Vicariate Apostolic); Historical , see Marquette (Diocese), Michigan St. Matthew in Charlotte, N.C., averages 12,000 people at weekend Masses—and that's hardly the only unique thing about parish life in the United States' largest Catholic church.
There are several other dioceses whose territories cover the Nation's The pastor of any particular church other than an ordinariate must be episcopally ordained, but his title conforms to that of his jurisdiction: the pastor of an archdiocese is an archbishop, the pastor of a diocese is a bishop, the pastor of an archeparchy is an archeparch, the pastor of an eparchy is an eparch, and the pastor of an exarchate is an exarch. (Jeff Swensen/Getty Images) The Catholic Church is larger than any other single religious institution in the United States, with over 17,000 parishes that serve a large and diverse population. ""I firmly believe that the process of Chapter 11 is the best and only way that will allow us to work constructively with all those who suffered from sexual abuse," wrote Wall, who became bishop in 2009. "The bishop has done what we see all the other bishops do - they run to bankruptcy perhaps seeking financial protection but more importantly protection from the discovery process," Pastor said.He noted that Bishop Wall was due to be deposed in an abuse case on September 18, which could be delayed if the bankruptcy is filed before then.
Tim Farrell. "Those who have been abused deserve the church's respect, compassion and love. Parishioners worship during Mass at St. Paul Cathedral, the mother church of the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh, on Aug. 15. Get breaking news alerts and special reports.