23 December 2007

Overview: Province of Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia

The province's metropolitan is Baltimore with suffragans in Arlington, Richmond, Wheeling-Charleston, and Wilmington.

Archbishop Edwin Frederick O'Brien (68) is the new head of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, Maryland, having been named to that post this past summer. He is likely to be named a Cardinal eventually, but probably not until after Cardinal Keeler turns 80 in 2011 (thus loses his right to vote if a conclave were needed).

The diocese of Arlington, Virginia is lead by Bishop Paul Stephen Loverde (67). He celebrated his 42nd anniversary of ordination to the priesthood last week.

Bishop Francis Xavier DiLorenzo (65) is the ordinary of the Diocese of Richmond, Virginia. He will celebrate his 20th anniversary of consecration as a bishop in March. He has served in two other dioceses (Scranton and Honolulu) before arriving here. The diocese has not had an ordinary move onto another diocese since then-Bishop (later Cardinal) James Gibbons in 1877. If Bishop DiLorenzo were to break that trend, it would likely be in the next year or two.

Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia has been headed by Bishop Michael Joseph Bransfield (64) for about 3 years.

Bishop Michael Angelo Saltarelli, Bishop of Wilmington, Delaware, turns 75 in January. His retirement and replacement should be anticipated in the next year or two.

This province celebrates a major milestone in the coming year, the 200th anniversary of the creation of the first province in the United States. The Diocese of Baltimore was created in 1789 (it had been the Prefecture Apostolic of United States of America for the previous 5 years).

On 8 April 1808, the diocese was split into the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the suffragan dioceses of Bardstown (later changed its name to Louisville), Boston, New York, and Philadelphia.

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