They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers.  Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.  All who believed were together and had all things in common; they would sell their property and possessions and divide them among all according to each one’s need.  Every day they devoted themselves to meeting together in the temple area and to breaking bread in their homes.  They ate their meals with exultation and sincerity of heart, praising God  and enjoying favor with all the people.  And every day the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.



When the Archdiocese of Philadelphia was officially divided on March 3, 1868, Bishop William O’Hara was given some 8,466 square miles to comprise the Diocese of Scranton, over which he would preside as the first Bishop. The Civil War had recently concluded: the new Bishop had twenty-four priests, and the same number of churches. He would begin to build, and each of his successors would follow suit.



     The eleven counties of Northeastern Pennsylvania, which comprise the Diocese, became conspicuous very early on, for their ethnic diversity. There was hardly a country in Eastern or Western Europe not represented. All the Catholic groups brought a deep faith, and were determined to enhance the Diocese’s physical plant, by constructing magnificent houses of worship, not to mention parochial schools. During the administration of Scranton’s second Bishop, Michael J. Hoban (1899-1926), however, ethnic problems, which he did nothing to cause, became a reality. It was Bishop Hoban’s wise and charitable handling of the problem that prevented a schism from reaching national epic proportions.



     The decade of Bishop Thomas C. O’Reilly’s tenure, 1928-1938, witnessed the economic ravages of the Depression. Known as a strong administrator, he tried his very best to minimize the effects of financial hardship on the ever-increasing number of parishes, institutions and religious communities, and experienced a fair bit of success. His Coadjutor, Bishop William J. Hafey (who had formally served as Ordinary in Raleigh, North Carolina), succeeded to the See of Scranton on Bishop O’Reilly’s death. An enormously competent man, Bishop Hafey presided over the Diocese during the years of the Second World War, and the subsequent post-war inflation. This pastorally oriented man had an amazing foresight about him, and saw clearly the Diocese’s future needs in education, health care, youth activities, and, as always, the foundation of new parishes. His "House of Charity" proved a very successful fund raiser, and as the twenty-first century emerges, the Diocese still reaps the benefits of an exceptionally insightful Prelate.