St. Matthew Catholic Church is a Catholic parish in the Ballantyne neighborhood of Charlotte, North Carolina, in the Diocese of Charlotte. As of 2017, it was one of the largest Catholic parishes in the United States, with over 10,500 registered families and more than 12,000 weekly attendees.
On September 21, 1986, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte announced the plan for a new church. The congregation, then made up of 237 families, originally met for Mass in the Tower Theater. [1] [2]
In 2017 St. Matthew's had 35,599 registered members, making up 13.7 percent of the entire population of the Diocese of Charlotte. [2] It has been described as a Catholic megachurch. [3] St. Matthew's clergy and staff reportedly observed ministerial methods and management strategies from Protestant evangelical megachurches, including Saddleback Church. [4] The church operates a satellite campus in Waxhaw, called St. Matthew South. [5] Until 2023, when it was overtaken by St. Charles Borromeo in Visalia, St Matthew's was the largest Catholic parish church in the United States. [6]
The church, which is run by the Order of Friars Minor Capuchin, claims to be welcoming to divorced Catholics as well as LGBTQ Catholics, and emphasizes the teachings and culture of the Second Vatican Council. [7] [8] [9]
In 1999 Fr. Robert Yurgel, a priest at St. Matthew's, sexually abused a fourteen-year-old altar boy. [10] Yurgel was removed from the Capuchin order and defrocked from the Catholic priesthood in 2010. He was arrested in 2009 after pleading guilty to a second-degree sexual offense. [11]
The Archdiocese of Denver is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northern Colorado in the United States.
The Diocese of Raleigh is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church that covers eastern North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archbishop of Atlanta.
The Diocese of Joliet in Illinois is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Illinois in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Chicago.
The Diocese of Springfield in Illinois is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in south central Illinois in the United States. The mother church is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Springfield.
The Diocese of Charlotte is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in western North Carolina in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Atlanta.
The Diocese of Rochester is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in the Upstate region of New York State in the United States.
The Diocese of Bridgeport is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church located in the southwestern part of the state of Connecticut in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Hartford.
The Diocese of Youngstown is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern Ohio in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Cincinnati.
The Diocese of Buffalo is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Western New York in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese within the metropolitan province of the Archdiocese of New York.
The Archdiocese of Newark is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in northeastern New Jersey in the United States.
The Diocese of Orange is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church that covers all of Orange County, California, in the United States. It is sometimes referred to as the Diocese of Orange in California, to avoid confusion with the Diocese of Orange in Orange, France, which was dissolved in 1801.
The Diocese of Evansville is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Southwestern Indiana in the United States.
The Diocese of Orlando is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in central Florida in the United States. St. James Cathedral serves as the seat of the diocese. The current bishop is John Gerard Noonan.
The Diocese of Palm Beach is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in eastern Florida in the United States The patron saint of the diocese is Mary, mother of Jesus, under the title Queen of the Apostles.
Peter Joseph Jugis is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as the bishop of the Diocese of Charlotte in North Carolina since 2003.
The Diocese of Portland is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church for the entire state of Maine in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Boston.
The Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle is a suffragan Latin Church diocese of the Archdiocese of Sydney, established in 1847 initially as the Diocese of Maitland and changed to the current name in 1995. The diocese covers the Hunter and Mid North Coast regions of New South Wales in Australia. The bishop of the diocese is Michael Kennedy
Catholic Church sexual abuse cases in Canada are well documented dating back to the 1960s. The preponderance of criminal cases with Canadian Catholic dioceses named as defendants that have surfaced since the 1980s strongly indicate that these cases were far more widespread than previously believed. While recent media reports have centred on Newfoundland dioceses, there have been reported cases—tested in court with criminal convictions—in almost all Canadian provinces. Sexual assault is the act of an individual touching another individual sexually and/or committing sexual activities forcefully and/or without the other person's consent. The phrase Catholic sexual abuse cases refers to acts of sexual abuse, typically child sexual abuse, by members of authority in the Catholic church, such as priests. Such cases have been occurring sporadically since the 11th century in Catholic churches around the world. This article summarizes some of the most notable Catholic sexual abuse cases in Canadian provinces.
The Catholic sexual abuse scandal in Europe has affected several dioceses in European nations. Italy is an exceptional case as the 1929 Lateran Treaty gave the Vatican legal autonomy from Italy, giving the clergy recourse to Vatican rather than Italian law.
Ronald Austin Mulkearns was the bishop emeritus of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Ballarat in Ballarat, Australia, a diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Melbourne. He resigned as bishop on 30 May 1997. The Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse found that Mulkearns was "derelict in his duty".