1700 to 1850 Before and during the
American Revolutionary War, the Catholics in all of the British colonies in North America were under the jurisdiction of the
Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England. However, Catholics were banned from the Georgia colony from its founding in 1733 until 1752, when it became a royal colony. The first Catholics to arrive in the
Province of Georgia were French refugees from the
Haitian Revolution that started in 1791. They established the Congrégation de Saint Jean-Baptiste in Savannah and constructed a wood-frame church, the first Catholic church in the city.
Pope Pius VI erected the
Prefecture Apostolic of the United States in 1784, encompassing the entire nation. Five years later, he converted the prefecture into the Diocese of Baltimore. In 1820, Pope Pius VII erected of the
Diocese of Charleston, including all of the new
State of Georgia. Most Holy Trinity Church, the oldest Catholic church in Georgia, was founded in
Augusta in 1810. Pius IX appointed Monsignor
Francis Gartland from the
Diocese of Philadelphia as the first bishop of the new diocese. During Gartland's tenure, the Catholic population in the diocese doubled; more priests were added, including recruits from
Ireland. He erected three new churches and enlarged the
Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Savannah, dedicating it in June 1853. Gartland also established an
orphanage and several
Catholic schools. Gartland died of
yellow fever in 1854 while visiting the sick during an epidemic in Savannah. The post of bishop was vacant for the next three years. On January 9, 1857, Pius IX erected the Vicariate Apostolic of Florida and removed all of Florida from the Diocese of Savannah. At the same time, Pius IX named Monsignor
John Barry as bishop of Savannah. Barry also had a short tenure as bishop, dying in France in 1859. Pius IX appointed Bishop
Augustin Vérot, then vicar apostolic of Florida, to be the next bishop of the Diocese of Savannah. During the
American Civil War, Vérot condemned the looting of the Catholic church at
Amelia Island, Florida, by
Union Army troops. He personally evacuated several
Sisters of Mercy from Jacksonville, Florida, to Savannah through the battle zone in Georgia. After the war, Vérot published a pastoral letter urging Catholics in the diocese to "put away all prejudice ...against their former servants". He also advocated a national coordinator for
evangelization among African-Americans, and brought in French sisters from LePuy, France, to work with them.
1870 to 1950 Pius IX erected the new
Diocese of St. Augustine in 1870 and appointed Vérot as its first bishop. He named Bishop
Ignatius Persico from the
Roman Curia as Vérot's replacement in Savannah. Poor health forced Persico to resign this post in 1873. Pius IX then named Reverend
William Gross of the Redemptorist Order in 1873 to become the new bishop of Savannah. During his tenure in Savannah, Gross laid the cornerstone of the
Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in November 1873 and dedicated it in April 1876. In addition to erecting several churches, schools,
orphanages, and hospitals, he opened a men's college at
Macon, Georgia, introduced the
Jesuits and
Benedictines to the diocese, and established a diocesan newspaper,
The Southern Cross, in 1875. In 1885,
Pope Leo XIII appointed Gross as archbishop of the
Archdiocese of Oregon City. Bishop
Thomas Becker from the
Diocese of Wilmington was appointed bishop of Savannah by Leo XIII in 1886. During his tenure, Becker added an episcopal residence to the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, which he completed with the building of its spires in 1896. After the cathedral was nearly destroyed by fire in 1898, Becker solicited funds for its rebuilding. In other pronouncements, Keiley condemned prejudice and the
lynchings of African-Americans. In 1902, Keiley memorialized
Confederate States Army veterans from the American Civil War and praised former Confederate President
Jefferson Davis. Kelley condemned U.S. President
Theodore Roosevelt for inviting the African-American educator
Booker T. Washington to the
White House. Keiley opposed an initiative to set up a seminary for African-Americans in the diocese, saying:"In America no black man should be ordained. Just as illegitimate sons are declared irregular by
canon law...so blacks can be declared irregular because they are held in such contempt by whites."In 1903, after a pronouncement by
Pope Pius X on church music, Keiley prohibited his nuns from leading church choirs. He complained to the Vatican that other dioceses in the United States were lenient on that rule. In 1907, Keiley invited the
Society of Missionaries of Africa to enter the diocese and build churches and schools for African-Americans. After Keiley resigned due to poor health in 1922,
Pope Pius XI appointed Reverend
Michael Keyes of the Marist Brothers to be the new bishop of Savannah. On July 11, 1934, Keyes asked parishioners in his diocese to sign a pledge from the
Legion of Decency to protest "...vile and unwholesome motion pictures." Keyes retired as bishop of Savannah in 1935. Auxiliary Bishop Gerald O'Hara from the
Archdiocese of Philadelphia was appointed bishop of Savannah by Pius XI in 1935. During his tenure, O'Hara built the
Cathedral of Christ the King in Atlanta, dedicated in January 1939. The cathedral was built on the former site of
Ku Klux Klan gatherings, and O'Hara even invited Imperial Wizard
Hiram Evans to the dedication. O'Hara once criticized the
Savannah Press after the newspaper ran a whimsical
St. Patrick's Day editorial repeating the old fable crediting Saint Patrick with having granted women the privilege to woo during
leap years. O'Hara was considered a leader in church efforts to improve
race relations, launching a seven-point social and racial program in the 1930s, calling for aid to
African American children and heightened awareness of
rural issues. Pius XI renamed the Diocese of Savannah as the Diocese of Savannah-Atlanta on January 5, 1937. On February 10, 1962,
Pope John XXIII elevated the Diocese of Atlanta to the Archdiocese of Atlanta. The Diocese of Savannah was removed from the Archdiocese of Baltimore and designated a suffragan of the new archdiocese. He once described
racism as "the paramount social problem affecting our area".
Pope John Paul II appointed Reverend
J. Kevin Boland as bishop of Savannah in 1995. After serving in the diocese for 15 years, Boland retired in 2010. To replace him,
Pope Benedict XVI named Reverend
Gregory Hartmayer of the
Conventual Franciscans to be the new bishop of Savannah. In 2020, Pope Francis appointed Hartmayer as archbishop of Atlanta. Francis appointed Reverend
Stephen D. Parkes from the
Diocese of Orlando as bishop of Savannah. Stephen Parkes is the current serving bishop. In May 2022, Parkes contacted the Vatican Dicastery for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments requesting permission to continue the
Traditional Latin Mass in the Diocese of Savannah. This dispensation was granted for the period of one year, and in September 2023, the Dicastery extended this dispensation for an additional two years. Bishop Parkes continues to support the Sainthood cause of the
Georgia Martyrs, a process begun by Bishop
Raymond W. Lessard in 1984. On January 27, 2025, the Holy See confirmed their deaths as acts of martyrdom "in hatred of the faith", officially granting them the title of
Venerable, and authorizing their
beatification, one of the major steps toward sainthood.
Sexual abuse In 2004, the Diocese of Savannah reported that it had paid a total of $50,000 to 12 people who accused six diocesan priests of sexually abusing them. One of these priests, Reverend Wayland Brown, had been sentenced in 2003 to ten years in prison in Maryland for molesting two boys there. He was laicized by the Vatican in 2004.The diocese reached a settlement in 2016 of $4.5 million to a man who accused Brown of sexually abusing him in the 1980s. Authorities could not criminally charge Brown with this offense due to the Georgia
statute of limitations. On November 12, 2018, Bishop Hartmayer released a list of 16 clergy from the diocese with credible accusations of
sexual abuse of minors. When Georgia Attorney General
Christopher M. Carr announced an investigation in May 2019 into sexual abuse claims against Catholic clergy in Georgia, Hartmayer pledged the full support of the diocese. Brown pleaded guilty in South Carolina in 2018 to six counts of
criminal sexual conduct with a minor, second degree and three counts of criminal sexual conduct with a minor, first degree. His victims were two boys Allan Ranta and Chris Templeton. Brown, then at St. James Catholic Church in Savannah, first raped Ranta in 1978 when the boy was nine years old; the abuse lasted for a year. After unrelated abuse allegations surfaced, the diocese sent Brown for treatment, then returned him to St. James. In 1987, Brown raped Templeton 50 times. Brown and the victims were residing in Georgia at the time, which did not allow prosecution for sex crimes that far in the past. However, since Brown had driven the boys to South Carolina several times and committed crimes there, he could be prosecuted under South Carolina law. Brown was sentenced to 20 years in prison. He died in prison in 2019. In 2020, Bishop Parkes and the diocese were sued by William Fred Baker Jr. Baker claimed that the diocese knew that Brown was molesting him in 1987 and 1988 when he was a 10-year-old attending St. James Catholic School. The Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia in March 2023 released a report that identified seven diocesan priests and eight religious order priests in the diocese as having credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. ==Bishops==