page_title: Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Sacred Heart Cathedral near downtown Raleigh, North Carolina.
context_page_description: The Diocese of Raleigh is a Roman Catholic diocese that covers the eastern half of the U.S. state of North Carolina. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishop of Atlanta. On July 5, 2017, Pope Francis named Luis Rafael Zarama to be the 6th Bishop of Raleigh; Zarama was installed on August 29, 2017 at the recently consecrated Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral.
context_section_description: On 3 March 1868, the Apostolic Vicariate of North Carolina was established in territory split from the Diocese of Charleston under the ecclesiastical authority of Bishop James Gibbons, who later became the Cardinal Archbishop of Baltimore.
  In 1888 Abbot Leo Haid, O.S.B., the founding Abbot of the Benedictine Belmont Abbey was named Vicar Apostolic of North Carolina. He also continued as Abbot of Belmont Abbey.
  On 8 June 1910, the Vicariate lost territory to establish the Abbacy nullius of Belmont–Mary Help of Christians. Bishop Haid now held three titles: Abbot of Belmont, Vicar-Apostolic of North Carolina, and Abbot-Ordinary of Belmont Abbey Nullius.
  On December 12, 1924 Pope Pius XI established the Diocese of Raleigh to include all of North Carolina with the exception of the eight counties of the Abbey Nullius of Belmont. The Holy See offered in 1910 to establish in Wilmington a diocese for North Carolina with St. Mary Catholic Church as the cathedral, but Haid refused to relocate to the coast, a move necessary if the diocese was to be established there. North Carolina remained an Apostolic Vicariate until 1924, when Bishop Haid died. Father William Hafey, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Baltimore, was named the first Bishop of Raleigh. The new diocese, covered nearly 46,000 miles and contained 8,254 Catholics. Within the diocese there were twenty-four churches with permanent pastors, forty mission churches cared for by priests of the parishes, and other "stations," where church structures did not exist but priests came to celebrate the Sacraments. The diocese had twenty-three diocesan priests, twenty-eight priests in religious orders, and 127 religious sisters.
  It gained territory twice: in 1944 seven counties of Abbacy nullius of Belmont–Mary Help of Christians were added to the Diocese and in June 1960 the Abbacy nullius was reduced to the grounds of the Monastery.
  On 12 November 1971, the Nullius was suppressed and became part of the Diocese of Charlotte.
caption: Sacred Heart in Raleigh, the diocese's first cathedral
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