The Diocese of Greensburg (Latin: Dioecesis Greensburgensis) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
The mother church of the Diocese of Greensburg is Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in Greensburg. The diocese was founded on March 10, 1951. As of 2023, its bishop is Larry J. Kulick.
Unlike the other British colonies in America, the Province of Pennsylvania did not ban Catholics from the colony or threaten priests with imprisonment. However, the colony did require any Catholics seeing public office to take an oath to Protestantism.
In 1784, a year after the end of the American Revolution, Pope Pius VI erected the Apostolic Prefecture of United States of America, including all of the new United States.[1][2] In 1789, Pius VI converted the prefecture to the Diocese of Baltimore, covering all of the United States.[3] With the passage of the US Bill of Rights in 1791, Catholics received full freedom of worship. That same year, a small group of Catholic families bought property in Greensburg for the first Catholic church in the city.[4]
In 1790, Theodore Brouwers purchased land near present-day Latrobe to create the first parish in Pennsylvania west of the Allegheny Mountains. It was initially called Sportsman's Hall Parish after the name of the land tract, but was soon renamed as Saint Vincent parish.[5]
1800 to 1950
In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Philadelphia, covering all of Pennsylvania.[6] As the Catholic population grew in Pennsylvania in the 19th century, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Pittsburgh in 1843 to cover the western part of the state. The Greenburg region remained part of the Diocese of Pittsburgh for the next 108 years.
In 1846, Saint Vincent Archabbey was established in Latrobe, making it the first Benedictine monastery in the United States.[5] In 1847, the first Catholic Church in Greensburg was established by the missionary John Nepomucene Neumann. It was the forerunner of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral.[4] That same year, The Sisters of Mercy established St. Xavier Academy in Latrobe.[4]
1950 to 1980
On May 28, 1951, Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Greensburg, taking its territory from the Diocese of Pittsburgh. The pope named Auxiliary Bishop Hugh L. Lamb of Philadelphia as the first bishop of Greensburg.[7] Under Lamb's direction, the diocese spent nearly $6.5 million on construction or additions to existing facilities. Eight new schools, including Greensburg Central Catholic High School, were created and ten new parishes were established.[8] Lamb helped found Jeannette District Memorial Hospital in Greensburg, donating over $300,000 for its construction and securing the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill to staff it.[9] Lamb died in 1959.
The second bishop of Greensburg was William G. Connare of Pittsburgh, named by Pope John XXIII in 1960.[10] He founded the diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Accent, in 1961 and presided over the first diocesan synod that same year.[11] He also expanded educational programs in parishes and opened the diocesan office of Catholic Charities.[12] He said his greatest accomplishment was the renovation of Blessed Sacrament Cathedral in 1972 to accommodate the liturgical reforms from the Second Vatican Council.[13]
1980 to present
Diocesan Pastoral Center in Greensburg
Connare retired in 1987 after 27 years as bishop. His replacement was Auxiliary Bishop Anthony G. Bosco of Pittsburgh, named by Pope John Paul II in 1987.[14] Bosco changed diocese policy on sacraments to combine the sacrament of confirmation and the first Eucharist for children on the same day. He created the diocesan Department of Education and Spiritual Formation for the diocese. Bosco retired in 2004.[15]
In 2004, John Paul II appointed Lawrence Eugene Brandt from the Diocese of Erie as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Greensburg.[15] In 2010, Brandt established the Diocesan Poverty Relief Fund for direct aid to the poor in the diocese.[15] In 2014, Brandt sued the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service over a provision in the Affordable Care Act that required certain religious institutions to provide contraceptive coverage in employer health insurance plans. The suit characterized this provision as an infringement on religious liberty.[16] Brandt retired in 2015.
Edward C. Malesic was named as the next bishop of Greensburg by Pope Francis in 2015.[17] On July 1, 2020, Malesic announced the Saint Pope John Paul II Tuition Opportunity Partnership (TOP) to provided $4.1 million in scholarships and tuition assistance to Catholic schools in the diocese. The pope in 2020 appointed him as bishop of the Diocese of Cleveland.[18]
As of 2023, the bishop of Greensburg is Larry J. Kulick, named by Pope Francis in 2021.[19][20]
As of 2017, there are 78 parishes within the Diocese of Greensburg; 38 of them are in a partnered configuration.[22] A diocesan strategic planning process began in 2006 resulted in closures of parishes and chapels, as well as partnering of parishes that have remained open. The last of these changes occurred in 2013.[23][24]
Schools
The Diocese of Greensburg has two junior-senior high schools, 12 diocesan elementary schools and three non-diocesan Catholic schools.[25]
High schools
Geibel Catholic Junior-Senior High School – Connellsville Township. It serves the southern half of the diocesan territory. The diocese introduced a middle school in 2007, bringing the grade levels to 7–12.
In April 1955, the diocese started receiving reports that Raymond Lukac was fraternizing with teenage girls in his parish. The diocese warned him about his behavior and transferred him to another parish. He soon became romantically involved with another underage girl, with whom he eloped. They were married in January 1957 after the girl turned 18. He returned to the church in July 1957, was sent to New Mexico for treatment and divorced the girl in December 1957. By this time, a child had been born. After finishing his treatment, Lukac went in 1961 to the Diocese of Gary, where he taught in a high school.[26]
The diocese received complaints in May 1981 from two families that Roger Sinclair had sexually abused two boys in 1980 during a sleepover. Although the diocese reported him to local police, no action was taken until June 1981, when Bishop Connare sent him to therapy. In 1984, the diocese gave Sinclair a good recommendation to join the US Air Force Chaplain Corps. In 1991, Topeka State Hospital in Topeka, Kansas, fired Sinclair for attempting to take young male patients on an unauthorized outing. After an abuse allegation appeared in 2002, the Diocese of Greensburg removed Sinclair's ministerial privileges. He was laicized by the Vatican in 2002.[27][28]
2010 to 2020
In early 2016, Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro convened a special grand jury investigation into sexual abuse of children by clergy in six Pennsylvania dioceses, including the Diocese of Greensburg.[29] According to The Philadelphia Inquirer, in 2017 the Dioceses of Harrisburg and Greensburg attempted to shut down the grand jury investigation.[30][31]
In July 2018, John T. Sweeney, a diocesan priest, pleaded guilty to molesting a fourth grade boy between September 1991 and June 1992.[32] Immediately following Sweeney's plea, the diocese made a statement pledging future cooperation.[33] The diocese agreed to continue educating "both children and adults in parishes and schools of the Diocese of Greensburg on how to spot and report suspected abuse."[33] The diocese also agreed to report any alleged incident of sexual abuse to the "PA Childline and the appropriate district attorney."[33] In December 2018, Sweeney received a sentence of 11+1⁄2 months to five years in prison.[34] In October 2019, one of Sweeney's victims filed a lawsuit against the diocese.[35] The victim sought a $1,000,000 settlement.[35]
In August 2018, Bishop Malesic acknowledged numerous reports of sex abuse of children between the 1950s and 1980s, and announced that the diocese would release the names of the accused clergy when the grand jury report was published.[36][37] The Pennsylvania grand jury report was published in August 2018. It showed that 20 diocesan clergy had credible accusations of sexual abuse.[38]
In October 2019, Bishop Brandt and the diocese were sued by a woman who had alleged that she had been raped beginning at age 12 by George Pierce in 1972. The suit claimed that Brandt and the diocese engaged in a conspiracy to protect Pierce. In 2004, Brandt had sent a request to Cardinal Josef Ratzinger, head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, to laicize Pierce.[39]
2020 to present
In June 2020, Malesic and the diocese were both named as defendants in a new sex abuse lawsuit.[40] The lawsuit was filed by a man alleging that both parties covered up reports that Joseph L. Sredzinski from Fayette County started sexually abusing him in 1991, when he was 11 years old, and continued to do so until he was 17 years old.[40] Sredzinski exposed the boy to pornography, sodomized him and invited other priests to do likewise. Police in May 1991 had found Sredzinski one night sitting in a car with a boy in a cemetery. Town officials passed news of the incident that same week to the diocese, along with complaints from other residents about Sredzinski's relationships with boys. Diocesan officials immediately told him to change his interactions with minors. Despite multiply new incidents by Sredzinki that violated the directives of the diocese, he was allowed to remain in ministry.[41]
In August, 2020, two new sexual misconduct lawsuits were filed against the diocese.[42] The first lawsuit was filed on behalf of a former Blairsville man who said that he was molested by Giles Nealen. The alleged crime took place in 1968 at St. Benedict Parish in Marguerite when the man was 11 years old.[42] Nealen died in 1996. The second lawsuit claimed that Leonard Bealko molested a 12-year-old altar boy more than 200 times over four years, ending in 1978, at Transfiguration Church in Mt. Pleasant, the boy's home, and a church rectory in Clymer.[42]
Also in August 2020, police arrested Andrew Kawecki for sexually abusing an altar boy on multiple occasions from 2004 to 2007, beginning when the alleged victim was 11.[43][44] In March 2022, Kawecki was convicted and sentenced to two and half to five years in prison.
That same day in August 2020, Malesic announced that the diocese found credible sexual abuse allegations against Emil Payer.[45] He had been convicted 2014 of stealing $98,033 from Church of the Seven Dolors in Huntington. The passing of the statute of limitations prevented authorities from filing criminal sexual abuse charges against Payer.[45]
In November 2020, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court denied a petition filed by the diocese to grant a stay which would have delayed an ongoing lawsuit against it.[46]
^"The Case of Father Raymond Lukac"(PDF). Office of the Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. August 14, 2018. Retrieved September 28, 2023.
