Redemptorists’ Baltimore Province will become part of new North American province

The Redemptorists’ Baltimore Province is about to become part of a much larger province, combining with Redemptorist communities in Denver, Mexico and Vietnam as the order reorganizes its North American mission. But the change in structure is not expected to end the Redemptorists’ presence in Baltimore.

The four Redemptorist jurisdictions will come together in January 2027 to form the Seelos Province of North America, with a new provincial leadership team beginning its work in Chicago.

The new province is named for Blessed Francis X. Seelos, a Redemptorist priest who served at St. Alphonsus in Baltimore and St. Mary in Annapolis before dying of yellow fever in New Orleans in 1867 after ministering to victims of the epidemic.

Redemptorist Father Francis Xavier Seelos, a German who worked among immigrants in Maryland, Louisiana and elsewhere in the 1800s, is depicted in a painting. (CNS photo from Clarion Herald)

The current Baltimore Province takes its name from the city where the Redemptorists established their first American province in 1850. Although the province’s headquarters are now in Washington, D.C., and were previously in Brooklyn, N.Y., Baltimore remains an important center of its ministry.

“There will be a new leadership team coming in, but our hope and anticipation is that our presence in Baltimore will continue,” said Redemptorist Father John Collins, the provincial superior of the current Baltimore Province. “The anticipation and expectation is to serve in the Archdiocese of Baltimore given our history, and given the pastoral needs of both the archdiocese and our pastoral priorities.”

Those priorities include preaching and proclaiming God’s loving redemption in Christ and offering a special focus to those who are on the margins of society.

The merger is part of a broader restructuring of Redemptorist provinces around the world, as the congregation seeks to respond to declining numbers of religious vocations and fewer Redemptorist priests and brothers.

A mission focused on those in need

Father Collins said the restructuring is intended to make the Redemptorists better stewards of their resources while strengthening their ability to carry out their mission.

“The need to be good stewards of our resources for the sake of the mission, the recognition of decreased vocations and fewer Redemptorists and missionaries has made it a matter of both wisdom and need to consolidate resources for the sake of our mission in the church,” Father Collins said.

The Redemptorist commitment to restructure its provinces is “an active faith in the power of the Holy Spirit whose guidance and light will continue to lead us to where our mission takes us,” he said.

“This is an opportunity to let go and let God lead us,” Father Collins said.

Father Collins said the Redemptorists have about 16 members in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. The Baltimore Province has seven seminarians. The province has not had a priestly ordination in the last four years, Father Collins said, and there will not be another ordination for at least two years.

The new provincial leadership team will begin its work in January 2027 in Chicago. Elections for the team have begun and are expected to be completed sometime in the fall, Father Collins said.

Baltimore ministry continues

The Redemptorists’ ongoing ministry in Baltimore is particularly visible at Sacred Heart of Jesus-Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in the heavily Latino Highlandtown neighborhood. St. Patrick and Fells Point and Holy Rosary in Fells Point are part of the parish.

Redemptorist Father Ako Walker is pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus-Sagrado Corazón de Jesús in Highlandtown. (Kevin J. Parks/CR Staff)

“Our main ministry here at Sacred Heart of Jesus is to work with the migrants,” said Redemptorist Father Ako Walker, who serves as pastor of the parish and Archbishop William E. Lori’s delegate to Hispanics for the archdiocese.

“You find in all of our parishes maybe except one or two, but in the majority, we are working with immigrants,” he said. “That work will continue.”

Sacred Heart’s ministry includes seven Sunday Masses in two languages, catechesis, youth and young adult ministry and personal presence meeting the needs of immigrants to the Baltimore area.

The new province’s connection with Mexico could also prove significant for that work, given the Redemptorists’ ministry among Spanish-speaking immigrant communities.

The order also continues its ministry at St. Mary in Annapolis, a 173-year ministry of the Redemptorists. The parish was a gift from the granddaughters of Charles Carroll, the only Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence. It also serves the St. John Neumann Mission Church community, which ministers to the Spanish-speaking immigrant community.

For Father Walker, the restructuring is ultimately a spiritual process as much as an organizational one. He said the Redemptorists have been challenged to let go of old ways of doing things and remain open to where God is leading them.

“We don’t plan apart from God. We allow God to do the planning, and we ask God to help us to be in tune with his will,” Father Walker said.

“How we as laborers in the vineyard as Redemptors, how we might be able to do things properly, and even lower our own barriers as it will to welcome change and to know that God is most present within the change.”

A province born in Baltimore

The Redemptorists’ connection to Baltimore goes back to the beginning of their American history.

In 1832, six Redemptorists traveled to the United States at the request of American bishops, beginning the congregation’s first missionary work outside Europe. They initially worked among Native Americans before expanding their ministry to Irish, German and Slavic immigrants.

They ministered to the people and opened parishes and schools, often teaching immigrants the English language.

St. John Neumann was the first pastor of St. Alphonsus in Baltimore and the first leader of the Baltimore Province of the Redemptorists. (CNS photo/courtesy Redemptorist Archives)

In 1847, St. John Neumann, born in Bohemia and the first Redemptorist to profess vows in the United States, was appointed superior of all Redemptorists in America. He was based at St. Alphonsus in Baltimore, where he served as pastor. Five years later, he was consecrated the fourth bishop of Philadelphia.

In 1850, the Redemptorists’ American Province, consisting of nine houses, was established from the Belgian Province and headquartered at the Redemptorist seminary in Baltimore. The province’s ministries soon spread throughout the United States and Canada, with missions established in Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, the Virgin Islands, Brazil and Paraguay.

In 1875, the original American structure was divided into the Province of Baltimore and the Province of St. Louis.

The Baltimore Province eventually moved its headquarters from the city that gave it its name. Its headquarters were in Brooklyn, N.Y., before the Provincial House moved to Washington, D.C., in 2019.

The province retained the Baltimore name, however, as a reminder of where its American history began.