Grand jury reports from the District Attorney of Philadelphia in 2003, 2005, and 2011 revealed dozens of archdiocesan priests with credible sexual abuse allegations. In total, 13 priests and one archdiocesan teacher were convicted of some form of sexual abuse crime. The archdiocese created the Independent Reconciliation and Reparations Program (IRRP) in 2018, and an estimated total of $130 million has been spent to compensate for over 400 victims.
In February 2012, the diocese announced the largest reorganization of its elementary and high school education system, with numerous recommended school closings or mergers. In August 2012, the archdiocese announced that the Faith in the Future Foundation would assume management of the 17 archdiocesan high schools and the four special education schools. In 2015, it was reported that Waldron Mercy Academy's director of religious education, Margie Winters, had been fired from the school after a parent had reported her directly to the archdiocese for marrying her lesbian partner in a civil ceremony in 2007.
The archdiocese has had a foster care agency for more than 100 years. It sued Philadelphia after the city stopped referring foster care cases to the agency after it refused to use same-sex couples to foster children. The case went to the US Supreme Court with the name Fulton v. City of Philadelphia, Pa.
Circa 1912 there were about 68,000 students in Catholic schools within the archdiocesan territory. This increased to 250,000 in 1961, but the figures decreased after that year. Enrollment was down to 68,000 in 2012. There were about 50,000 students in Catholic schools in the city of Philadelphia in 2000, and this figure decreased to 30,000 in 2010. In that span one Catholic high school and 23 Catholic elementary schools closed or merged, and the proliferation of charter schools in that period meant that the number of students combined in that type of school outnumbered that of the remaining Philadelphia Catholic schools.
In 2012 the archdiocese proposed closing or merging 18 schools in Philadelphia and 31 schools outside of Philadelphia; the Philadelphia Inquirer stated this would further weaken Philadelphia's middle class. The proposal would affect 24% and 29% of the senior high and K-8 schools, respectively.
The first Catholic school established in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was at St. Mary Parish in Philadelphia during the late eighteenth century. During the nineteenth century, Bishop Kenrick encouraged the establishment of Catholic schools. Subsequently, John Neumann (1851–1860) made the establishment of parish elementary schools a priority and by 1860 there were seventeen parish elementary schools in Philadelphia. Between 1900 and 1930, Catholic elementary schools increased to 124 schools in Philadelphia and 78 schools in the four suburban counties. Between 1945 and 1965, 62 new Catholic elementary schools were established.
In 2012, about 25% of the students in Philadelphia Catholic elementary schools were not Catholic. In 2010 South Philadelphia Catholic elementary schools had 2,572 students, a decline by 27% from the 2006 figure.
Special needs schools
These three schools for special needs children are supported by the Catholic Charities Appeal.
Saint Katherine School (1953) in Wynnewood and Radnor serves children with intellectual disabilities
Our Lady of Confidence School (1954) in Willow Grove and Warminster serves children with unique learning styles
Saint Lucy School (1955) in Philadelphia for children with visual impairment
High schools within the archdiocese
Diocesan high schools
The first free diocesan high school in the United States was the Roman Catholic High School of Philadelphia, founded for the education of boys in 1890. The Catholic Girls High School, the first diocesan high school for girls, was founded in 1912. The school became the JW Hallahan Catholic Girls High School and closed in 2020.
West Catholic Boys and Girls High School opened in 1916. Northeast Catholic School for Boys opened in 1926 and closed in 2010, Despite the economic hardships of the 1930s and 1940s, seven more diocesan high schools were founded. Between 1945 and 1967, fifteen high schools were opened.
Note: Each Catholic college and university within the archdiocese is affiliated with a religious institute, rather than the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.
Frances Xavier Cabrini, for whom the suburban college is named and who visited on numerous occasions. She started an orphanage and an Italian national parish that still is functioning today, St. Donato's in West Philadelphia.
↑Friend, Christine (February 2010). "Philadelphia's First Bishop". Philadelphia Archdiocesan Historical Research Center. Archived from the original on 2017-06-11. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
United States
