Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh - Establishment

Establishment

The Diocese of Raleigh, North Carolina, was established on December 12, 1924, by Pope Pius XI. Before this, North Carolina was an Apostolic Vicariate under the ecclesiastical authority of Bishop Leo Haid, O.S.B., who was both abbot of Belmont Abbey and Vicar Apostle of North Carolina. The Holy See offered in 1910 to establish in Wilmington a diocese for North Carolina with St. Mary Catholic Church as the cathedral, but Haid refused to relocate to the coast, a move necessary if the diocese was to be established there. North Carolina remained an Apostolic Vicariate until 1924, when Bishop Haid died. Pius XI erected the Diocese of Raleigh and assigned a secular priest as its bishop. The diocese, covering nearly 46,000 miles and holding 8,254 Catholics, comprised all of North Carolina except eight counties which had been given to Belmont Abbey in 1910 as the abbey’s own diocese, the “Abbey Nullius”. Within the diocese there were twenty-four churches with permanent pastors, forty mission churches cared for by priests of the parishes, and other “stations,” where church structures did not exist but priests came to celebrate the Sacraments. The diocese had twenty-three diocesan priests, twenty-eight priests in religious orders, and 127 religious sisters.