The Diocese of Salina (Latin: Dioecesis Salinensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in northern Kansas in the United States.
The diocese covers 26,685 square miles and has a Catholic population of 40,546.
History
1540 to 1850
The earliest Catholic presence in present day Kansas was during the 1540s, when Reverend, Juan de Padilla, the Spanish missionary priest, accompanied the Spanish explorer Francisco Vázquez de Coronado on his expedition through the region.
The Vatican in 1826 erected the Diocese of St. Louis, which included Kansas and the vast Missouri Territory. During the early 1800s, Catholic missionaries started building chapels for their Native American converts. In 1847, Jesuit priests established the St. Mary's Mission in St. Marys, Kansas, along the Oregon Trail, to evangelize the Potawatomi people.[7]
1850 to 1880
Pope Pius IX in 1850 erected the Vicariate Apostolic of Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains. This huge jurisdiction contained the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.[8] The pope named Reverend John Miège from St. Louis as the vicar apostolic.
Miège arrived in 1851 at an Potawatomi encampment on the Kansas River.[9] At that time, his vicariate contained five churches, eight priests, and 5,000 Catholics.[9] He then moved to the Jesuit mission at St. Marys.[10] Miège conducted extensive pastoral visitations throughout the vicariate, visiting Native American villages, forts, trading posts, and growing towns. He would celebrate mass at these stops on the rear end of his wagon.[11][9]
In 1855, Miège established his episcopal see in Leavenworth, Kansas, in order to better minister to the growing number of Catholic European settlers there.[10]By this time, the vicariate had a Catholic population of 5,000, with 3,000 Native American converts. It was served by eight priests in 11 missions and 18 stations.[12]
The first Catholic mass in Salina was celebrated in 1861 in a private home. Sacred Heart Church, the first Catholic church in the city, was dedicated in 1876.[13] In Beloit, the first mass was offered in 1871, with the first church, St. John the Baptist, dedicated in 1878.[14]
The Diocese of Leavenworth, covering all of Kansas, was erected in 1877 by Pius IX. He named Reverend Louis Fink as its first bishop. Fink visited Salina that same year.[13] Kansas grew so rapidly over the next ten years that Fink petitioned the Vatican to establish two new dioceses in the western part of the state. Our Lady of Good Hope, the first Catholic church in Concordia, was completed in 1879.[15]
With only 20 resident pastors and a growing Catholic population, Scannell attempted to solve the priest shortage by establishing a preparatory seminary in Belleville, laying its cornerstone in June 1890.[16] However, due to an economic depression, the seminary was never built and left the diocese with a long-lasting debt. During his three-year-long tenure, Scannell also assisted the Sisters of St. Joseph to become permanently established in the diocese, erected 15 churches, and increased the number of diocesan priests from five to 22.[16] Leo XIII named Scannell as Bishop of Omaha in 1891. Leo XIII's replacement for Scannell in Salina, Reverend Thaddeus J. Butler, died before his consecration as bishop.
In 1898, Monsignor John Cunningham of Leavenworth was appointed the second bishop of Concordia by Leo XIII.[17] Described as the "diocesan builder,"[18] Cunningham erected 54 churches, 22 schools, and three hospitals during his tenure.[19] He also dedicated the cathedral and laid the cornerstone for the Nazareth Motherhouse in 1902. Cunningham also founded Hays Catholic College and St. Joseph's Orphanage in addition to several rectories and convents.[18]
1910 to 1944
Bishop Thill
After Cunningham died in 1919, Pope Benedict XV in 1921 named Monsignor Francis Tief of the Archdiocese of Hartford as the third bishop of Concordia.[20] During his tenure, Tief built or renovated eight churches, eight rectories, six schools, two convents, the Home of the Little Flower in Concordia (1924), St. Mary's Hospital in Manhattan (1936), St. Joseph's College and Military Academy in Hays (1931), and Marymount College in Salina (1922).[21] He ordained 28 priests, built a new episcopal residence and chancery in Concordia (1926–1927), and established the Northwestern Kansas Register as the diocesan newspaper in 1937.[21] Tief also pioneered the religious vacation school movement in 1927.[21] Tief retired due to poor health in 1938.
Monsignor Francis Thill from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati was appointed bishop of Concordia in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.[22] Thill founded the Catholic Youth Organization of Concordia in 1939.[23] Despite the lingering effects of the Great Depression, he liquidated the diocesan debt of nearly $250,000 in late 1942.[24]
1944 to 1980
On December 23, 1944, Pope Pius XII renamed the Diocese of Concordia as the Diocese of Salina, with Thill remaining as bishop.[25] During his tenure, Thill erected or remodeled 25 churches, ten schools, 11 rectories, nine convents, and six chapels.[23] He also ordained 35 priests.[23] Thill died in 1957.
To replace Thill, Pope Pius XII in 1957 appointed Reverend Frederick Freking, spiritual director of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, as the second bishop of Salina.[26] Early in his tenure in Salina, Freking founded the Salina Council of Catholic Women in 1958 and Catholic Charities of Salina the following year.[27] He convoked the first diocesan synod in 1962.[27] As bishop of Salina, he established seven new churches, eleven new convents, four new high schools, and seven new grade schools.[28] He also expanded the diocesan Charity and Religion Fund to help parishes finance their construction and renovation projects.[29] Freking became bishop of the Diocese of La Crosse in 1964.
After Vogel died in 1979, Pope John Paul II selected Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Kucera of the Diocese of Joliet in 1980 as bishop of Salina. He established the diocesan Office of Planning, the Bishop's Council for Catholic Education and the Office of Youth Ministries . The diocese hired a business manager, and moved the chancery and other administrative offices to a larger building in Salina. Marymount College in Salina became a diocesan institution after the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia were unable to continue its administration.[32] Kucera was named archbishop of Dubuque in 1983.
Auxiliary Bishop George Fitzsimons of the Diocese of Kansas City–Saint Joseph was selected by John Paul II as the next bishop of Salina in 1984.[33] During his tenure, he established an Office of Lay Ministry, with a director and an advisory board, funded and initiated by the Catholic Church Extension Society in Chicago, as well as a Rural Life Commission. He initiated the RENEW parish spiritual growth program.[34]Marymount College closed in 1989 because of financial difficulties.[34] Due to a declining population and priest shortage, Fitzsimons merges several parishes. He erected St. Nicholas of Myra Parish in Hays and St. Thomas More Parish in Manhattan.[34]
2000 to present
Bishop Coakley
After Fitzsimon retired in 2004, John Paul II named Reverend Paul Coakley of the Diocese of Wichita as the next bishop of Salina in 2004.[35] He became archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City in 2010. To replace Coakley, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Monsignor Edward Weisenburger of Oklahoma city as bishop of Salina.[36] He became bishop of the Diocese of Tucson in 2017.
Pope Francis appointed Reverend Gerald Vincke from the Diocese of Lansing as bishop of Salina in 2018.[37][38] In September 2018, the Archdiocese of Washington announced that former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the center of a major sexual abuse scandal in the church, would move to the rectory of St. Fidelis Parish in Victoria, Kansas.[39]Vincke explained his decision to allow McCarrick to live in the diocese as showing mercy while pursuing justice. Vincke cite the story of Maria Goretti, a sainted girl who forgave her killer on her deathbed.[citation needed] In January 2020, the archdiocese announced that McCarrick, by then laicized, had moved to an undisclosed location.
As of 2023, Vincke is the current bishop of Salina.
Reverend Ron Gilardi, a Capuchin Order priest, was arrested in 2000 on charges of sexually assaulting a minor at Thomas More Prep-Marian High in Hays during 1993. He was charged with criminal sodomy, indecent liberties with a child and other sexual offenses.[41] In May 2002, Gilardi pleaded guilty to indecent liberties with a child and was sentenced to 32 months in a treatment facility.[42] After the victim sued the diocese and Thomas More, he received compensation of $30,000 from the school.
The diocese was sued in 1995 by two brothers who claimed that they had been sexually assaulted by Reverend Robert Reif during the 1980s. Their family had previously reported the abuse to the diocese and received $23,000 in compensation. After spending a year in therapy, Reif left the priesthood in 1988 and was finally laicized in 2006. A judge later dismissed the lawsuit, saying that the incident had passed the statute of limitations.[43] However, that ruling was reversed on appeal and the diocese eventually reached a settlement with the brothers.
In April 2012, Reverend Allen Scheer of Salina was charged with inappropriately touching a man. The victim was a vulnerable adult. Scheer pleaded guilty in August 2012 to misdemeanor battery.[44] He was laicized that same year.[45]
In February 2019, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) announced that it had been investigating sex abuse allegations against all the Catholic dioceses in Kansas since November 2018. The diocese in October 2019 released a list of 14 priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse.[45]On August 14, 2020, Melissa Underwood, KBI spokeswoman, stated, "As of Aug. 7, we have had 205 reports of abuse and have opened 120 cases."[46]
^Gordon J. Fielder, Jr., "New Catholic Diocese bishop ordained," The Salina Journal, May 2, 2012, online at [1]; "Biography / Curriculum Vitae of Bishop Weisenburger," online at "Biography / Curriculum Vitae - Catholic Diocese of Salina". Archived from the original on 2009-06-23. Retrieved 2009-05-10..
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