Data Sources

Hierarchy.Directory’s dataset was built in stages. First we used the Wikidata API to build a foundation of bishops who have some relation to the United States and cross-referenced them with Catholic‑Hierarchy.org — David M. Cheney’s extraordinary database representing over two decades of research. These imports provided the foundation: bishop identities, career timelines, consecration lineage, portraits, and diocese metadata.

Automated imports are imperfect. We then spent considerable time auditing and correcting the data by hand — fixing assignment conflicts, verifying dates against primary sources, and ensuring accuracy. Our methodology is scalable, but not bulletproof. You can report data issues here.

Now that the historical baseline has been audited and verified, ongoing updates are done manually. The Church is alive — when Rome announces a new appointment or retirement, we add it by hand. The same goes for the death of a bishop. This is deliberate — automated pipelines are good for bootstrapping a dataset, but the Church’s data deserves the care of human attention.

As we expand to cover more dioceses worldwide, we will use a mix of methods — automated imports from Wikidata for the initial scaffold, structured imports from other open datasets where available, and manual curation to ensure accuracy. We will always note our sources.

Sources

Wikidata · Catholic‑Hierarchy.org · USCCB Directory · Vatican Press Office · Diocesan websites · The Official Catholic Directory · The Annuario Pontificio · GCatholic.org · us_diocese_mapper (county-to-diocese mapping)

All factual data on this site — names, dates, assignments, and structural information — is published under CC0 (public domain). You are free to use, share, and build upon this data for any purpose without permission or attribution, though attribution is appreciated.

Portraits and images are the property of their respective copyright owners and are used for informational and reference purposes. They are not covered by CC0. Photo credits and license information are displayed beneath each portrait where available. The majority of portraits are sourced from Wikimedia Commons under Creative Commons licenses.

This site is maintained by a single individual and errors are inevitable. If you notice incorrect information, a missing record, or have documentation that could improve the data, please contact us or email info@hierarchy.directory. Corrections sourced to authoritative references are especially welcome.

If you believe an image is being used without proper authorization, please contact us with the specific image and any relevant ownership information, and we will promptly review and remove it if necessary.

If you are a communications director, chancellor, or other representative of an (arch)diocese or bishop listed in this directory, we welcome your contributions. We are happy to include official portraits, updated biographical information, or corrections to existing records. Submitted portraits will be credited to your (arch)diocese and displayed with appropriate attribution.

To contribute, please contact us with the subject “Portrait Submission” or “Data Correction.”