National parishes housed in
national churches in Rome have existed for centuries to meet the spiritual needs of people both temporarily or permanently
residing in
Rome and those visiting Rome on
pilgrimage. For example, the Church of
Santa Susanna served both as a
titular church and the national parish for
Americans until 2017, when it was replaced by
San Patrizio a Villa Ludovisi. National parishes were first established in
North America in the late 18th century, to meet the needs of immigrants not speaking the language of the majority population. The first national parish in North America was
Holy Trinity German National Parish, founded in 1788 in
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Father Raymond A. Schroth,
SJ, wrote in a 2002
National Catholic Reporter article about
trusteeism that, "national parishes, particularly German and Polish, who brought over European traditions of the laypeople establishing and directing the parish," have strongly represented the voice of the laity in the church. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, when covering
Pope Benedict XVI's 2008 visit to the United States, identified two historically significant national parishes: Holy Trinity Church, in Philadelphia, established in 1789 as both the first national parish in the United States and the first to serve German-speaking Catholics; and,
Saint Benedict the Moor's Church, in New York, established in 1883 as the first mission parish to serve African-American Catholics north of the
Mason-Dixon line. As city populations changed, sometimes national parishes were merged into one church as population declines caused church closings. For instance, in
Little Falls, New York, former national parishes for Italian, Polish and other immigrant groups have been closed. The Catholic community now worships in one church, renamed after the
Holy Family. It is the largest physical church and had been founded as St. Patrick's by Irish Catholic immigrants, the first of waves of immigrants to this small city in the 19th and 20th centuries. In a 2009
National Catholic Reporter article about the resignation of Bishop
Joseph Francis Martino of the
Diocese of Scranton,
Pennsylvania, Jerry Filteau noted the diocese's history of establishing national parishes for
Polish people,
Italians,
Irish and other Catholic
immigrant groups who arrived in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He attributed failure by an earlier Irish-American bishop to be sensitive to the Polish national parish as being the catalyst for the separation of the Polish National Catholic Church in Scranton. George Gregory wrote in 2010 about the establishment of a new national parish designated for
Hispanics in the Philadelphia archdiocese, noting that "national parishes serve particular ethnic communities, as opposed to territorial parishes, which serve a geographic area of an archdiocese or a diocese." He said that the new parish was the 32nd national parish in the
Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The parish was established as St. Rocco Parish in
Avondale, Pennsylvania, in southern
Chester County, where a large number of Latinos have moved in recent years. Parish members are primarily Mexican, but some are Puerto Rican, Colombian, Argentinian, or have other Latin American backgrounds.{{cite magazine|magazine=Main Line Today|location=Newtown Square, Pennsylvania|publisher=Today Media ==See also==