Coat of arms of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
Barry-wavy of eight azure and argent, a sword in pale, point down, the grasp and guard shaped as a cross-patonce, between two crosses-patonce in fess gules.[3]
The arms of the diocese features a field of waves representing Minnesota (from the Dakota mní sóta, "clear blue water"). The sword is a traditional symbol of Saint Paul the Apostle. Combined with the sword, the two crosses honor the Trinity.[3] More recently, the double crosses have been taken to represent the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.[4]
The first Catholic presence in present-day Minnesota was recorded in 1680. Louis Hennepin, a Belgian Franciscan Recollect and explorer, found a waterfall on the upper Mississippi River. Hennepin named the waterfall the Chutes de Saint-Antoine or St. Anthony Falls after his patron saint, Anthony of Padua. The French formally claimed the territory in 1689.[6]
In 1727, René Boucher de La Perrière and Michel Guignas built Fort Beauharnois on the shore of Lake Pepin. They established St. Michael the Archangel, the first Catholic chapel in Minnesota. The French abandoned the fort and the chapel in the 1750s during the French and Indian War.[6] After the war ended, the Spanish took over the French territories in the Great Plains and Old Northwest, including Minnesota. Some French-speaking colonists from Switzerland moved from their original settlements near Fort Garry in Manitoba to a location close to Saint Anthony Falls. The settlement became known as Saint Pierre.
After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States gained control of vast areas in the continent, including present day Minnesota. Pope Leo XII in 1826 erected the Diocese of Saint Louis, giving it jurisdiction over Minnesota and other parts of the region.[2] In 1837, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Dubuque, with jurisdiction over the new Wisconsin Territory, which included Minnesota.[2]
Bishop Mathias Loras of Dubuque in 1839 visited Fort Snelling and Saint Pierre. In 1840, Loras sent Lucien Galtier to Minnesota as a missionary. Galtier learned that a group of Catholic from the Red River Colony had settled on the east bank of the Mississippi River. He decided that it was a good location for a church as it was near a steamboat landing. Two French settlers offered a location for a church, and other settlers provided materials and labor to build a log chapel. Galtier wrote, "I had previously to this time fixed my residence at Saint Peter's and as the name of Paul is generally connected with that of Peter... I called it Saint Paul."[7] With the gradual increase of population about the chapel, the community developed into a village known as Saint Paul's Landing.
Diocese of Saint Paul (1850–1888)
Joseph Crétin
Avoca historical marker
Pope Pius IX on July 19, 1850, erected the Diocese of Saint Paul in Minnesota, taking its territory from the Diocese of Dubuque. The new diocese covered all of the new Minnesota Territory, which included Minnesota and the future states of North Dakota and South Dakota.[8] The pope named Monsignor Joseph Crétin of St. Louis as the first bishop of Saint Paul in Minnesota. The log chapel built by Lucien Galtier became the first cathedral.[9]: 43, 44
In addition to the French Canadians large contingents of Irish and German Catholics arrived, who located in St. Paul, and in places along the Mississippi, St. Croix, and Minnesota Rivers.[10] In 1851, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet came to St. Paul, and soon opened schools at St. Paul and St. Anthony Falls.
Thomas Grace
In 1859, Reverend Thomas Grace was named Bishop of St. Paul. The number of Catholics in the diocese continued to grow, with many coming from Bohemia and Poland. The number of priests grew with the increase of the people, and they were so chosen as to correspond to the needs of the parishes. Hospitals were opened at Minneapolis and New Ulm, orphan asylums were erected at St. Paul and Minneapolis, and homes were established for the aged poor.[10] In 1875, the Diocese of Saint Paul was transferred from the ecclesiastical province of St. Louis to that of Milwaukee. John Ireland was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Grace, whom he succeeded in 1884.
While he was an empire builder, Ireland was not without controversy; the author of The Church and Modern Society (1897), Ireland opposed the use of foreign languages in American Catholic churches and parochial schools. National (ethnic) parishes were common at the time because of the large influx of immigrants to the U.S. from European countries. In this, he differed from Michael Corrigan, Archbishop of New York, who believed that the more quickly Catholics gave up their native languages, customs, and traditions in order to assimilate into a Protestant culture, the sooner they would forsake their religion as well. Different views on the so-called "Americanization" of the Catholic Church in the United States split the hierarchy in the 1890s. Ireland's insistence on Americanization led to the unfortunate circumstance of Ruthenian Catholic priest Alexis Toth and his congregation becoming Russian Orthodox. Ireland died on September 25, 1918.
On January 31, 1919, Pope Benedict XV appointed Austin Dowling to succeed Ireland. In his address at his installation on March 25, 1919, Dowling described himself as "the unknown, the unexpected, [and] the undistinguished successor of the great Archbishop Ireland."[9] Downling's legacy included establishing Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary and the Archbishop Ireland's Education Fund. He improved Saint Paul Seminary and was on the board of Education of the National Catholic Welfare Council (or "NCWC," now known as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or USCCB). Specifically, author Marvin O'Connell credited Dowling as "one of the leading lights" from the NCWC's inception, who headed NCWC's education department, which put him in direct contact with the Catholic Education Association.[14] He died on November 29, 1930.
Brady succeeded John Gregory Murray as Archbishop of St. Paul upon Murray's death on October 11, 1956.[16]
On November 18, 1957, Pope Pius XII founded the Diocese of New Ulm, taking its territory from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul.[16][17] The pope named Monsignor Alphonse Schladweiler of Saint Paul as the first bishop of New Ulm.
On December 16, 1961 Pope John XXIII named Binz the seventh bishop and fifth archbishop of Saint Paul. He was installed on April 28, 1962.
Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (1966-present)
On July 11, 1966, the Holy See altered the name of the archdiocese to reflect the equal stature of the Twin Cities by naming the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis as co-cathedral of the archdiocese and adding Minneapolis to the title of the archdiocese. Subsequently, Leo Binz was the first archbishop to hold the title of Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
As Binz's health began to decline, he requested and received a coadjutor. Pope Paul VI named the Coadjutor Bishop of WichitaLeo Christopher Byrne coadjutor archbishop on July 31, 1967. Binz allowed Archbishop Byrne to take greater control of the administration of the archdiocese. Byrne, however, died on October 21, 1974.[18]
Pope Paul VI accepted Archbishop Binz's resignation on May 21, 1975.
John Roach, originally a priest of the Archdiocese and at the time of Binz's resignation an auxuliary bishop, was appointed archsbihop to succeed Binz. On February 22, 1994, Harry Flynn was appointed by John Paul II as the coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.[19] Roach retired on September 8, 1995.
After serving as archbishop for 12 years, Flynn requested that the pope assign him a coadjutor archbishop. On April 24, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop John Nienstedt as Flynn's coadjutor.[20]
John Nienstedt
When the pope accepted Flynn's retirement on May 2, 2008, Nienstedt automatically succeeded him as the eighth archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis.[21]
Nienstedt's tenure as archbishop was tumultuous. In October 2010, Nienstedt announced a strategic plan that called for 21 parishes to be merged into 14 neighboring parishes. These and two later mergers reduced the number of parishes in the archdiocese from 213 in October 2010 to 188 in July 2013.[22]
In November 2012, priest Curtis Wehmeyer pled guilty to 20 sex abuse and child pornography charges.[23] In 2013, MPR News obtained a letter revealing that an archdiocesan officials, including Archbishop Nienstedt and vicar general Reverend Kevin McDonough - brother of Obama White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough - had known of the archdiocesan decision in 2011 to cover up an allegation suggesting that Wehmeyer had sexually abused two brothers in his camper.[24] When the reported abuse took place, the camper was parked outside Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Paul, where Wehmeyer served for six years and where the mother of the boys was employed.[24] In 2015, Wehmeyer was laicized by the Vatican while serving a five-year prison sentence.[25]
In January 2015, the Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[26]
On June 15, 2015, Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee A. Piché to help clear the air in the Archdiocese surrounding the abuse cases and bankruptcy. The same day, Francis appointed Bernard Hebda as its apostolic administrator to serve until a new archbishop would be installed, although Hebda remained as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Newark.[27][28]
Bernard Hebda
During Hebda's term as administrator, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis reached agreement on a civil settlement with officials of Ramsey County on procedures to prevent child sexual abuse.
On March 24, 2016, Hebda was named archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, at which point his appointment as coadjutor archbishop of Newark ended. He was installed in the Cathedral of Saint Paul in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 13, 2016.[29]
In May 2018, the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis agreed to pay victims of clergy sexual abuse a total of $210 million in settlement, which awaited court approval.[30] By the time the settlement was issued, 91 priests who served in the archdiocese were accused of sexually abusing 450 victims.[31] In June 2018, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy reorganization in order to find enough money to pay for the settlement.[32][33][34] Once approved, the settlement became the second largest in any Catholic bankruptcy case in United States history and largest overall for any archdiocese which was forced into bankruptcy.[35][36] In September 2018, survivors of clergy abuse officially concluded a month-long vote which resulted in the approval the settlement;[37] the vote had started on August 21.[38][39] The settlement was then approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge.[40]
In the summer of 2019, Hebda announced that he would be calling an archdiocesan synod. This would be the first synod held in the archdiocese in eight decades; in his initial announcement on June 7, Hebda said that, "In the time that [he has] served in this archdiocese, [he has] come to believe that [the] local Church is particularly ripe for a synod".[41] In a Mass the following Saturday evening for the Solemn Vigil of Pentecost, Hebda formally announced that a synod would take place; two years later, at a Mass commemorating the same holy day, the synod was officially convoked. It culminated in June 2022 with an archdiocesan synodal assembly.[42] Hebda released a pastoral letter, "You Shall Be My Witnesses", on the feast of Christ the King in 2022.
The Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Saint and Minneapolis as of 2023 had 79 elementary schools and 16 high schools with a total student enrollment of approximately 31,000.[44]
^ ab"Recent Episcopal Coats of Arms". The Ecclesiastical Review: A Monthly Publication for Clergy. Vol. LXIII. 1920. pp. 40–41. Retrieved June 26, 2024.
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