Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh
diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States
The Diocese of Pittsburgh (Latin: Diœcesis Pittsburgensis) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Western Pennsylvania in the United States. Established in 1843, the diocese is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. The cathedral church is Saint Paul Cathedral in Pittsburgh. The bishop is Mark Eckman.
Territory
The Diocese of Pittsburgh includes 61 parish-groupings (107 churches) in the counties of Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Greene, Lawrence, and Washington, an area of 3,755 sq mi (9,730 km2). It had a Catholic population of 618,731 in 2023. As of 2023, the diocese had 304 diocesan priests, 85 religious priests, and 117 permanent deacons.
History
1750 to 1800
In 1754, the first mass within the present-day Diocese of Pittsburgh was celebrated at Fort Duquesne in present-day Pittsburgh by a French Franciscan chaplain. A chapel was built at the fort, dedicated to the Virgin Mary under the title of "The Assumption of Our Lady of the Beautiful River." When the French destroyed the fort in 1758, the mission became a ruin. The region passed into British rule with the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1763.
“Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh” enters the record as diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Roman, Catholic and Diocese can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Roman, Catholic and Diocese provides the most credible route into that argument.
Place names and jurisdictional language are key evidence: both can reveal earlier catalogue descriptions and overlooked record series. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 25, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q599335. The Library of Congress control number is n85157269. Authority coordinates are 40.447, -79.950. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1843, 2023, 1750 and 1800.
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This entry incorporates text from “Roman Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.