THe Diocese of Charleston South Carolina Was Not The First Major Center Of Catholicism In the Deep South

Before I do my Louisiana blogger roundup , I thought I would post on a "blurb" that Catholic papers. secular papers, and bloggers keep wrongly repeating.

There has been a lot of news about the fact that Bishop Baker has from the Diocese of Charleston South Carolina has become Bishop of Birmingham Alabama. A important move for various reasons.

Now I keep seeing this line ,that the Loggia repeats here ,in most pieces discussing this event. We see it stuck in this paragraph:
As bishop of Charleston, Baker has presided over rapid growth; thanks to a combination of Rust Belt transplants and adult converts, the Palmetto State’s Catholic population boomed by almost 40% (to 175,000+) during his tenure, and dedicating new or expanded churches, schools and parish facilities has been both the imperative and the norm. Further highlighting the church’s new prominence in the diocese – whose 1820 founding marked American Catholicism’s entrance into the Deep South – last month the bishop ordained the diocese’s largest class of priestly ordinands since 1956. The liturgy was held in a convention center to accommodate the number of well-wishers, and a class of similar size is in the pipeline for next year.
That is very incorrect. The last time I looked Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama were the DEEP south. We were proclaiming the Catholic faith before and in cases very much more aggressive than Charleston South Carolina.
Now don't get me wrong I love Charleston. It is one my my favorite Southern cities. It also has a great place in Catholic history in the USA. If I won the Louisiana Lottery tomorrow, I would move to Charleston and open a great rare and historic used book store in that city. I would love attending Mass at this great church , with this great blogger as my Priest, and during the day after hiring some cute thing from the College of Charleston while sipping mint julips behind the counter go"Darling will please go fetch that first edition of Eudora Welty's "The Worn Path" for Mrs Pendercraft it you please". So I am not dumping on Charleston.
However we became part of the USA on July 4 1805 when Mr Jefferson bought us. We became a state in 1812. Way before 1820. I know we were not part of the original 13 but we came unto the American scene pretty quick. We were the bastion of Catholicism in the USA not just the deep South. Outside Louisiana cities, major Catholic influence was felt in Natchez Mississippi and Mobile Alabama before our esteemed upstart Charleston. Just saying!!!