Roman Catholic Diocese of Wilmington
The Diocese of Wilmington () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the 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: the nine Maryland counties included here are Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, and Worcester). The Diocese of Wilmington is one of four Catholic dioceses in the United States to have territory in more than one federal entity; the Diocese of Gallup and the Diocese of Norwich  each span two states while the Archdiocese of Washington spans Washington, D.C. and five counties of Maryland. On Thursday, April 30, 2021, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Bishop William Francis Malooly and appointed William Edward Koenig as his successor. History. 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. On 3 March 1868, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Wilmington with territory consisting of the  state of Delaware taken from the Diocese of Philadelphia, Caroline, Cecil, Dorchester, Kent, Queen Anne's, Somerset, Talbot, Wicomico, and Worcester counties of the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Accomack and Northampton counties on the Eastern Shore of Virginia taken from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The pope designated the new diocese, which encompassed the entire Delmarva Peninsula, as a suffragan of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore. On 28 May 1974, Pope Paul VI transferred both counties in Virginia to the Diocese of Richmond, establishing the present territory of the diocese, consisting of the entire state of Delaware and the Eastern  Shore of Maryland. Sexual abuse cases. In 2009, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the face of financial liabilities from lawsuits regarding sexual abuse by priests. In 2011, 150 victims received an average of $310,000 each, totaling $77.425 million. Defendants in the cases were not identified.