Diocese of Wilmington

Diocese of Wilmington Dioecesis Wilmingtoniensis

Location
Country	United States of America
Territory	The State of Delaware and nine counties on the Eastern Shore of Maryland
Ecclesiastical province	Baltimore
Metropolitan	Baltimore
Statistics
Area	5,375 km² (2,075 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2014) 1,369,080 240,338 (17.6%)
Parishes	57
Information
Denomination	Catholic Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	March 3, 1868 (149 years ago)
Cathedral	Cathedral of Saint Peter
Patron saint	St. Francis de Sales
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	William Francis Malooly
Metropolitan Archbishop	William E. Lori Archbishop of Baltimore
Map

Website
cdow.org

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington (Latin: Dioecesis Wilmingtoniensis) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the eastern United States and comprises the entire state of Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland (i.e. the parts of the Delmarva Peninsula not in Virginia). It is led by Bishop William Francis Malooly, whose seat is the Cathedral of Saint Peter in the City of Wilmington.

The Diocese publishes a newspaper, The Dialog, which underwent a circulation and format transformation in 2011 as a result of financial pressures.

Rev. Patrick Kenney established the first Roman Catholic mission in Delaware was in 1804 on the site of the Coffee Run Cemetery in Mill Creek, Delaware. The Coffee Run Mission Site was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1973. The diocese was canonically erected on March 3, 1868 by Pope Pius IX from portions of the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the Diocese of Philadelphia, and also received the 2 eastern-shore counties of Virginia, thus extending all the way down the Delmarva Peninsula. The Virginia portion reverted to the Diocese of Richmond in 1974, leaving the Diocese of Wilmington with all of Delaware and the 9 eastern-shore counties of Maryland. In 2009, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of financial liabilities from lawsuits alleging sexual abuse by priests. The parties reached a settlement in February 2011, implementation of which had not yet occurred by May 2011.