The Diocese of Raleigh () is a diocese of the Catholic Church that covers eastern North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Atlanta. The bishop is Luis Rafael Zarama. Holy Name of Jesus Cathedral in Raleigh was recently consecrated.
Territory
The Diocese of Raleigh encompasses the counties of Beaufort, Bertie, Bladen, Brunswick, Camden, Carteret, Caswell, Chatham, Chowan, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Currituck, Dare, Duplin, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Gates, Granville, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hertford, Hoke, Hyde, Johnston, Jones, Lee, Lenoir, Martin, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Orange, Pamlico, Pasquotank, Pender, Perquimans, Person, Pitt, Randolph, Robeson, Rockingham, Sampson, Scotland, Tyrrell, Vance, Wake, Warren, Washington, Wayne, and Wilson in North Carolina.
Statistics As of 2025, the Diocese of Raleigh was divided into eight deaneries, with 81 parishes, 13 missions and four campus ministries. The total population is 5,305,066, with 510,000 Catholics who are served by 171 diocesan and religious order priests.
History
1700 to 1868 Before and during the American Revolutionary War, the Catholics in all of the British colonies in America were under the jurisdiction of the Apostolic Vicariate of the London District in England. Discrimination and persecution of Catholics in the North Carolina colony was common until it became a royal colony in 1729. Anyone wanting to hold public office had to sign an oath stating that Protestantism was the true Christian faith. With the passage of the U.S. Constitution in 1789 after the American Revolution, Catholics were guaranteed freedom of worship throughout the new nation.
Pope Pius VI erected the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States in 1784, encompassing the entire United States. Five years later, he converted the prefecture into the Diocese of Baltimore. The Diocese of Charleston was erected by Pope Pius VII on July 11, 1820. The new diocese included states of Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina, all removed from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
During the early 19th century, Irish Catholic immigrants started entering North Carolina to work on the railroads and other construction projects. The first Catholic church in Raleigh was built in 1834. By 1860, there were 350 Catholics living in seven North Carolina parishes.
1868 to 1924
On March 3, 1868, Pope Pius IX erected the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina, removing all of North Carolina from the Diocese of Charleston. At that time, the pope James Gibbons as the first vicar apostolic.
When Gibbons became vicar apostolic, North Carolina counted fewer than 700 Catholics. In his first four weeks in office, he traveled almost a thousand miles, visiting towns and mission stations and administering the sacraments. He also befriended many Protestants, who greatly outnumbered Catholics in the state, and preached at their churches. Gibbons made many converts to Catholicism. In 1872, Pius IX appointed Gibbons as bishop of the Diocese of Richmond. The Vatican would not replace Gibbons in North Carolina for the next 11 years. In 1876, Benedictine monks from St. Vincent's Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, arrived in Belmont to establish Belmont priory.
In 1881, Leo XIII appointed Henry P. Northrop as the new vicar apostolic of North Carolina. Two years later, the pope named Northrup to also serve as bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte. Northrup held both positions until 1888, when the Vatican allowed him to resign as vicar apostolic and only serve as bishop of Charleston.
In 1888, Leo XIII appointed Leo Michael Haid to replace Northrup as apostolic vicar of North Carolina, while allow Haid to remain as abbot of Belmont.Page about Bishop Leo Michael Haid, O. S. B., on Catholic Hierarchy web site. In 1910, Pope Pius X designated Belmont Abbey as a territorial abbey, giving it control of eight counties from the Vicariate Apostolic of North Carolina to Belmont Abbey. Haid now led two different Catholic jurisdictions in North Carolina. Haid died in 1924.Ibid.
1924 to 1962
On December 12, 1924, Pope Pius XI elevated the Apostolic Vicariate of North Carolina into the Diocese of Raleigh, making it the first Catholic diocese in North Carolina. The pope appointed Monsignor William Hafey of Baltimore as its first bishop. In 1937, Pius XI named Hafey as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Scranton. To replace Hafey as bishop of Raleigh, the pope appointed Monsignor Eugene J. McGuinness from the Archdiocese of Philadelphia that same year. In 1944, Pope Pius XII transferred seven counties from Belmont Abbey to the Diocese of Raleigh. Later in 1944, Pius XII named McGuiness as bishop of the Diocese of Oklahoma City.
Pius XII appointed Monsignor Vincent Waters from the Diocese of Richmond as the new bishop of Raleigh in 1944. Waters was accused by some of the diocesan clergy of holding on to idle church property worth millions of dollars while some parishes were in debt. He also denied requests for the creation of a priests' senate; 20% of his priests sent a request to the Vatican asking for Waters' removal. In 1953, Waters ordered the racial desegregation of all Catholic churches and schools in the diocese. He described racial segregation as a product of "darkness," and declared that "the time has come for it to end." He also said,"I am not unmindful, as a Southerner, of the force of this virus of prejudice among some persons in the South, as well as in the North. I know, however, that there is a cure for this virus, and that is our faith."Pope John XXIII transferred Gaston County, Belmont Abbey's last county, to the Diocese of Raleigh in 1960.Diocese of Raleigh Page on Catholic Hierarchy Web Site Although it remained a territorial abbey, Belmont now only had jurisdiction over its own campus. In 1962, John XXIII elevated the Diocese of Atlanta to the Archdiocese of Atlanta. He designated the Diocese of Raleigh and Belmont Abbey as suffragans of the new archdiocese.
1962 to present
In 1962, John XXIII elevated the Diocese of Atlanta to the Archdiocese of Atlanta and transferred the Diocese of Raleigh to it from the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Pope Paul VI in 1971 erected the Diocese of Charlotte. He removed Belmont Abbey and several counties from the Diocese of Raleigh. This action created the current boundaries of the Diocese of Raleigh. In 1972, Waters expelled five Sisters of Providence nuns from the diocese for not wearing their religious habits while teaching.
After Waters died in 1974, Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop F. Joseph Gossman of Baltimore in 1975 to replace him. Gossman served as bishop in the diocese for 31 years. After his resignation in 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Michael Burbidge of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia as the new bishop of Raleigh.
After the tornado outbreak of April 2011, which killed 24 people in North Carolina and other states, Burbidge urged Catholics to include victims and survivors in their Holy Week prayers. He directed the diocese's parishes and mission churches to hold a special collection for a disaster relief fund to be used to help survivors.Soon after taking office, Burbidge had announced the building of a new cathedral for the diocese, the Cathedral of the Holy Name of Jesus. The preparations for construction began in 2013 and the groundbreaking was in 2014."Cathedral to replace old Raleigh orphanage" (retrieved December 12, 2013) "Bishop Burbidge Announces Plans for New Cathedral Campus", Diocese of Raleigh website (retrieved February 14, 2012)
In 2016, Pope Francis appointed Burbidge as bishop of the Diocese of Arlington. The pope named Auxiliary Bishop Luis Zarama of Atlanta as the first Hispanic bishop of Raleigh. The Cathedral of the Holy Name of Jesus was dedicated in 2017. In August 2025, Clemente Olvera Guerrero, pastor of St. Ann Parish in Clayton, was charged with one count of felony soliciting prostitution. The diocese immediately removed Guerrero from ministry.As of 2026, Zarama is the current bishop of the diocese.
Controversies Sexual abuse In June 2002, in a meeting with officials of the Diocese of Scranton, a Pennsylvania man claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Edward J. Shoback, a Diocese of Raleigh priest. The alleged attacks took place in North Carolina in the 1970s when the victim was a seminarian. The diocese later removed the victim from seminary study there. When informed of the allegation, Shoback denied it. In 2004, two men reported to the Diocese of Raleigh that they had been sexually molested as teenagers by Shoback after he gave them liquor and showed them pornography. Shoback admitted to the first of these new allegations and was removed from ministry.
In 2007, the diocese paid almost $2 million to settle sexual misconduct claims made by 37 victims against at least 15 priests since the 1950s. By September 2020, settlements paid by the diocese in sexual misconduct cases since 1950 totaled $2,717,750.List of Clergy with Actionable Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors Roman Catholic Diocese of Raleigh, Accessed September 18, 2020
In August 2018, a grand jury report regarding sexual abuse in the Catholic Church in Pennsylvania named two former North Carolina priests in the list of 301 priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse. William Presley and Robert Spangenberg both worked in the diocese in the 1970s and 1980s. Presley, whom the report describes as a "violent predator who insinuated himself into the lives of families for the purpose of getting close enough to their children that he could abuse them",Former NC priest is named in grand jury report on Catholic sex abuse had served at a parish in Kinston, North Carolina, from 1981 until 1983. Spangenberg had served at Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Parish in Newton Grove, North Carolina, and Immaculate Conception Catholic Parish in Clinton, North Carolina, from 1977 until 1979.
By May 2020, 29 clergy were listed on the diocese list of clergy who had been "credibly accused" of committing acts of sex abuse.CList of Clergy with Actionable Allegations of Sexual Abuse of Minors, Accessed May 1, 2021 Those listed either had claims of abuse against them while serving in the diocese or had reports of abuse elsewhere.
LGBTQ+ issues In 2009, the Diocese of Raleigh established a chapter of Courage International, a Catholic apostolate that ministers to gay and lesbian people and considered homosexuality to be a treatable condition. The ministry's executive director stated that Courage's goal was to "assist men and women who are afflicted with the thorn of same-sex attraction." Courage International encouraged celibacy among gay men and women, and uses a twelve-step program for treatment.
In May 2012, the diocese mailed postcards to Catholic voters promoting North Carolina Amendment 1, a proposed amendment to the North Carolina Constitution to ban same sex marriage. The postcards, titled Why Traditional Marriage Matters, featured photos of Bishop Burbidge and Bishop Jugis of Charlotte with the text "On May 8, vote FOR marriage". The postcard also contained a passage from the Gospel of Matthew, stating "From the beginning the Creator made them male and female and said: for this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife and the two shall become flesh." The diocese contributed $50,000 to support the amendment. The amendment passed. In 2013, the diocese left the ecumenical North Carolina Council of Churches after the council spoke out against North Carolina Amendment 1.