1600 to 1700 The first Catholic missionary,
Simon Le Moyne, traveled to central New York in 1654 during a brief truce between the French and the Iroquois (
Haudenosaunee) Confederacy. He was well suited for the expedition given his fluency in both the Huron (
Wyandot) and Haudenosaunee languages. He left
Quebec City in the French colony of New France to travel to the upper
Mohawk Valley. During his 1654 visit,
Onondaga Native Americans showed Le Moyne a spring that they believed to be cursed; he immediately recognized as a harmless
salt spring. In another visit to the area in 1656, the priests
Pierre-Joseph-Marie Chaumonot and
Claude Dablon laid the groundwork to build
Sainte Marie among the Iroquois near present-day Syracuse. It was a sizable mission, housing about seven Jesuit priests and fifty French workmen. In 1658, the French were forced to abandon Sainte Marie due to fears of an attacks by
Mohawk/Haudenosaunee tribesmen. Additional missions in the area were undertaken later by both Jesuit and
Sulpicians missionaries. After the Dutch ceded their colony of
New Amsterdam (New York) to the British in 1667, political tensions started rising in central New York. The British and French began disputing the territory, leading them to incite their allies, the French-allied Wyandot and the British-allied Haudenosaunee, to fight each other. This situation led to rivalries, atrocities, and reprisals between the two Native American nations. This situation made it difficult for missionaries to safely maintain and continue their missions.
1700 to 1800 Just before the year 1700, the colonial legislature under Governor
Bellomont passed laws banning Catholics in the British Province of New York, which included all of Upstate New York. One law mandated a life sentence to any Catholic priest. The penalty for harboring a Catholic was a £250 fine plus three days in the
pillory. As a result, Catholic missionaries left the province. The last Jesuit missionary to the Iroquois surrendered at Albany in 1709. Great Britain gained full legal control over this territory with the signing of the
Treaty of Paris (1763). After the approval of the
New York Constitution in 1777, freedom of worship for Catholics was guaranteed. This was soon followed by the same guarantee in the
US Constitution. On November 26, 1784,
Pope Pius VI erected the
Apostolic Prefecture of United States of America, including all of the new United States. On November 6, 1789, the same pope raised this prefecture to the
Diocese of Baltimore. An early Catholic in the central New Region was Dominick Lynch, the founder of
Rome. Lynch signed an address of congratulations by American Catholics to
George Washington upon his election as American president in 1789.
St. John the Evangelist Church was selected to serve as the first cathedral. At the time of Ludden's arrival, the diocese contained 70,000 Catholics, 74 priests, 46
parishes, 20
mission churches, and 16 parochial schools. He selected
St. Mary's Church in Syracuse as his new
cathedral in 1903, and dedicated it in September 1910.
1923 to 1970 Daniel Curley of the Archdiocese of New York was the next bishop of Syracuse, appointed by
Pope Pius XI in 1923. During Curley's tenure, the Catholic population of the diocese increased from 173,200 to 201,152. He established a
Society for the Propagation of the Faith, 28 parishes, 18 schools, the Loretto Rest facility, and Lourdes Hospital. At his invitation, the Sisters of Perpetual Rosary opened the first home for
cloistered
nuns in Syracuse. Curley died in 1932. In 1933, Monsignor
John A. Duffy of the
Diocese of Newark was appointed the fourth bishop of Syracuse by Pius XI. In 1934, when fan dancer
Sally Rand was scheduled to appear in Syracuse, Duffy commented, "I must regard the presence of the Rand woman on the stage as an act of public defiance of the Catholic people of Syracuse." Four years later in 1937, Pius XI named Duffy as bishop of the
Diocese of Buffalo. To replace Duffy, Pius IX named Monsignor
Walter Foery of the
Diocese of Rochester as the next bishop of Syracuse in 1937. In 1959, he expressed "shock and deep regret" that the Syracuse Metropolitan Health Council had admitted
Planned Parenthood. After 33 years as bishop, Foery retired in 1970.
1970 to present Auxiliary
David Cunningham of Syracuse replaced Foery in 1970, named by
Pope Paul VI. Cunningham retired six years later and Paul VI named Auxiliary Bishop
Francis Harrison of Syracuse to replace him. Harrison practiced a
collegial manner of governing, and worked to include
laity and especially women in the diocesan affairs. He launched diocesan programs for
African Americans,
Hispanic,
Native Americans, and the disabled. He once played a game of
golf with comedian
Bob Hope, who later recorded a
radio ad for the diocese's first HOPE Appeal, an annual fundraiser Harrison started in 1978. Harrison resigned in 1987.
Pope John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop
Joseph O'Keefe of the Archdiocese of New York as the next bishop of Syracuse. O'Keefe served in Syracuse until his retirement in 1995. The same pope then selected Monsignor
James Moynihan of the Diocese of Rochester to succeed O'Keefe as bishop. In 1998, Moynihan removed the priest
Richard McBrien from his job as a
columnist for the diocesan
newspaper, replacing him with writer
George Weigel; this action dismayed some members of the diocesan clergy. Moynihan was a founding member of the Bishop Sheen Ecumenical Housing Foundation, named after Bishop
Fulton J. Sheen. After Moynihan retired in 2009,
Pope Benedict XVI selected Bishop
Robert J. Cunningham of the
Diocese of Ogdensburg as the next bishop of Syracuse. He retired in 2018. The current bishop of the Diocese of Syracuse is
Douglas Lucia, formerly a priest of the
Diocese of Ogdensburg. He was named by Pope Francis in 2019.
Sex abuse scandals and bankruptcy In a 2011 legal deposition, Bishop Cunningham made statements about the victims of
sex abuse describing them as "culpable" and "accomplices". In 2015, when those statements became public, Cunningham said "my choice of words should have been better, [...] but I can assure you that I did not believe the individual involved in the case was at fault." He also repeatedly reiterated that he doesn't believe children are responsible for being abused. In June 2020, Bishop Lucia announced that the diocese had filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy due the cost of lawsuits from hundreds of sexual abuse cases.. Lucia said he decided on bankruptcy to keep the diocese solvent and ensure that all the alleged victims got something for their lawsuits. Just days before the bankruptcy filing, 38 plaintiffs filed new sex abuse lawsuits under the New York Child Victims Act. In December 2024, Reverend Nathan Brooks, who once served at parishes in
Cortland County, pled guilty to endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced that month in
Homer Town Court to probation, counseling, and a full stay-away order from the victim; Brooks also faced a charge of
forcible touching, but the family said it was satisfied with the resolution on the endangering charge. Cortland County District Attorney Patrick noted that in addition to violating the law, Brooks violated the policies of the diocese. ==Bishops==