An archdiocese spanning the globe

Dec. 8, 2010 - Asked to name the most populous American dioceses, alert Catholics would likely name Los Angeles, New York and Chicago. I rather doubt that most of us would rank Brooklyn (the country’s only completely urban diocese) as high on the league table as it in fact is, and I’m willing to wager that not 1 in 20 Catholics would put Rockville Centre (New York) and Orange (California) in the top 10.

Then there is the real sleeper, which is the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA—a global jurisdiction whose congregants include Catholics serving in the armed forces and their family members; students at the service academies; all patients in Veterans Administration hospitals; and U.S. government personnel and their families serving abroad, such as members of the foreign service and those American Catholics working abroad in foreign aid programs. Add all that up, and the Archdiocese for the Military Services is the fifth-largest diocese in the United States.....

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