From the pages of another blog, McNamara's Blog, I read with great interest that on July 19, 1850, the Diocese of New Orleans became an Archdiocese. That's 159 years ago. In fact, New Orleans was named an Archdiocese on the very day the Vatican named New York and Cincinnati as Archdiocese too. Just a fun fact: I have visited all three cathedrals in these cities; St. Louis King of France in New Orleans, St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York and St. Peter in Chains in Cincinnati.
Records indicate that Mass was 1st celebrated in Louisiana in 1699 and a church parish, named for St. Louis was established in 1720.
When the Church of New Orleans became an Archdiocese the first Archbishop was Antoine Blanc. Our newest Archbishop, recently announced by Pope Benedict and soon to be officially installed, is Archbishop Gregory Aymond, the 14th Archbishop of New Orleans. Because the last three Archbishops (Philip Hannan, Francis Schulte and Alfred Hughes) are alive and well and have decided to remain in New Orleans, we will hold the distinction as the only U.S. Archdiocese with 4 living Archbishops.
Our cathedral is named in honor of St. Louis King of France and is substantially the same cathedral church as it was in 1852 after extensive renovations. Parts of the structure date back to the 1790's and the original church was on the same spot in 1718.
Currently the Archdiocese is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina and is slowly gaining more and more Catholics. There are now about 400,000 Catholics in the Archdiocese but this is still much lower than pre-Katrina days.
As a newly ordained Deacon, I am thankful to God to be incardated to my home Archdiocese!
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