This month our journey through the origins of Catholicism in the 50 states takes us into the central part of the nation, and to Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas.
Nebraska
The first recorded Catholic presence in what is now Nebraska came in 1720, when a Spanish Franciscan accompanied an expedition into the region at a time when Spain and France were competing for control of the central plains. This Spanish expedition ended disastrously when it clashed with the Pawnee, who killed the friar and many other members of the party.
With the establishment in 1837 of St. Joseph’s Mission for Indians by the Jesuits at present day Council Bluffs, Iowa, priests also began crossing the Missouri River into what is now Nebraska. The first was the Belgian Pierre Jean De Smet where he baptized two Otoe infants near present-day Bellevue. As many of the Potawatomi began moving away, St. Joseph’s Mission soon closed, bringing this brief period of missionary activity in the region to an end.
In 1856, two years after Nebraska was officially organized as a territory, a small group of Irish immigrants along with a priest settled in northeastern Nebraska, finally establishing a permanent Catholic presence.
In the 1870s, a second settlement of Irish Catholics was established west of this first community in Holt County. Around the same time and continuing later, other Irish Catholic colonies appeared in different parts of Nebraska (which had been admitted to the Union as the 37th state in 1867). Their establishment was encouraged by organizations such as the Irish Catholic Colonization Association, which sought to help Irish immigrants establish farming communities in the West.
The discovery of gold in Colorado in 1859 and completion of the first transcontinental railroad in 1869 placed Nebraska along important routes of westward migration and helped transform Omaha into a major transportation hub. The city’s growth also provided the young Church with a more permanent center. In 1856, St. Mary’s was established there, becoming the first church of any denomination in Nebraska.
In 1857, Rome created the Apostolic Vicariate of Nebraska, and in 1859 the Irish-born James O’Gorman arrived as its first apostolic vicar. With only three priests serving his vast territory, Bishop O’Gorman relied heavily on financial support from the Society for the Propagation of the Faith.
Thanks to continued growth, in 1885 Rome established the Diocese of Omaha, encompassing all of Nebraska and Wyoming.
Two years later, southern Nebraska was separated to form the Diocese of Lincoln, a geographically vast diocese that remains larger than Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey and Rhode Island combined. In 1912, the Diocese of Kearney was created from Omaha and renamed Grand Island in 1917.
Today, the Archdiocese of Omaha and the Dioceses of Lincoln and Grand Island serve some 360,000 Catholics, about 20% of Nebraska’s population.
Kansas
Moving south into Kansas, we find a similar story of missionary priests, Native peoples and Catholic settlers gradually establishing the faith on the Great Plains.
Kansas can claim the earliest recorded Mass in what would become the United States. In 1541, the Franciscan Juan de Padilla, accompanying the expedition of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado from Mexico in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold, celebrated Mass near present-day Dodge City. Later killed while serving among Native peoples, Padilla is often regarded as the first Christian missionary martyred within the present boundaries of the United States.
Scattered missionary efforts continued in what is now Kansas for nearly three centuries, but nothing permanent took root until 1836, when Jesuits from St. Louis established a mission among the Kickapoo near present-day Leavenworth.
Around the same time, the Religious of the Sacred Heart, led by Mother Rose Philippine Duchesne, founded a school for Potawatomi girls. Although Duchesne spent only a short time there, she made a lasting impression on the Native people, who called her “Woman Who Prays Always.” She was canonized in 1988.
At the request of the American bishops, in 1850 Rome established the vast Vicariate Apostolic of the Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains, an immense missionary jurisdiction of roughly 500,000 square miles encompassing much of the Great Plains east of the Rocky Mountains. The Jesuit missionary John Baptist Miège was appointed its first apostolic vicar.
In 1855, Bishop Miège established his episcopal seat at Leavenworth, a city founded only the year before. From there he ministered to some 700 Catholics served by eight priests, six churches, and several mission stations. In 1857, with the creation of the Apostolic Vicariate of Nebraska, the remaining territory became the Apostolic Vicariate of Kansas, and in 1877, was erected as a proper diocese.
Today, the Catholic community in Kansas is served by four dioceses: the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas (formerly Leavenworth) and the Dioceses of Dodge City, Salina and Wichita.
Oklahoma
Moving south into Oklahoma, we find traces of some of the same explorers and missionaries who passed through neighboring Kansas. Coronado’s expedition probably crossed the region in 1541, while Jesuit missionaries working in Kansas occasionally ventured South during the early 19th century.
A permanent Catholic presence did not begin until 1875, when French Benedictine monks arrived as the region’s first resident missionaries, having recently fled their homeland in the aftermath of the Franco-Prussian War. The following year, Rome established the Prefecture Apostolic of Indian Territory and appointed one of these Benedictines, Isidore Robot, as its first prefect. The Benedictines soon established Sacred Heart Mission (now St. Gregory’s Abbey) on lands of the Potawatomi Nation, which became an important center of Catholic life in the territory.
As expanding white settlement in the East pushed Native peoples westward, 67 tribes eventually came to reside in what is now Oklahoma. White settlement increased dramatically after 1889, when the federal government opened millions of acres of previously unassigned land to homesteading. Catholics were among these newcomers, though their numbers remained small whereas as late as 1891, the territory had only about 5,000 Catholics, or roughly 2% of the population.
In 1891, Pope Leo XIII elevated the prefecture to the Apostolic Vicariate of Indian Territory and appointed the Belgian-born Theophile Meerschaert as its first apostolic vicar. He inherited a missionary Church served by only three diocesan priests and 23 monks in 21 churches.
Over the next few decades, the Benedictines also established a sizable network of small mission schools, many of them supported by Mother Katharine Drexel (canonized in 2000), who became a major benefactor of the Church’s work among Native peoples in Oklahoma.
In 1905, two years before Oklahoma became a state, Pope Pius X erected the Diocese of Oklahoma City. Today, the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and the Diocese of Tulsa serve more than 400,000 Catholics in 163 parishes, 35 schools, and 21 hospitals across the Sooner State.
Texas
Finally, we turn to Texas, where the story of Catholicism began centuries before Texas became part of the United States.
Franciscan missionaries began venturing into the northern reaches of New Spain soon after the Spanish began exploring the region. Their greatest efforts came in the late 17th and 18th centuries, when they established a network of missions across what is now northern Mexico and Texas. About a dozen were founded in eastern Texas, in part because Spanish authorities hoped the missions would strengthen their claims to the region against French expansion from neighboring Louisiana. By the early years of Mexican independence, however, the mission system was in decline, and between 1824 and 1830 the remaining missions in Texas were secularized.
The Texas Revolution of 1836 brought another dramatic change. Catholics in the newly independent Republic of Texas found themselves separated from Church authorities in Mexico and appealed to Rome for assistance. In response, Pope Gregory XVI established the Apostolic Prefecture of Texas in 1839 and placed it under the direction of the French Vincentian Father Jean-Marie Timon. When Odin arrived in Texas in 1840, he found some 12,000 Catholics served by only five parishes. In 1842, Pope Gregory XVI elevated Texas to an apostolic vicariate and named Odin its first bishop. Five years later, Pope Pius IX established the Diocese of Galveston, with Odin as its first bishop.
During Odin’s two decades in Texas from 1840 to 1861, the local Church grew considerably as increasing numbers of Catholic immigrants arrived from Europe. Germans established communities such as New Braunfels in 1844, while Polish Catholics founded Panna Maria in 1854, the first permanent Polish settlement in the United States. They were joined by Swiss, Czech, Belgian and other Catholic immigrants who established communities and parishes across the state.
Odin also brought to Texas its first community of women religious, a group of Ursuline sisters who arrived in Galveston in 1847 and soon opened a school for girls. Their ministry quickly extended beyond education as they cared for victims of repeated yellow fever epidemics, turned their school into a hospital for soldiers from both sides during the Civil War, and later assisted survivors of the hurricanes of 1875 and 1900 that struck Galveston.
In 1874, the Diocese of Galveston was divided with the creation of the Diocese of San Antonio, which encompassed much of western and northern Texas. This first division reflected the remarkable growth of the Church, a story that would continue for the next century and a half. Today, Texas is home to 15 dioceses serving some 8.5 million Catholics, nearly 30% of the state’s population.
Father Anthony D. Andreassi, a priest of the Brooklyn Oratory of St. Philip Neri, holds a doctorate in history from Georgetown University. His research and writing have focused on the American Catholic community. After spending many years in Catholic secondary education, he is on the staff of the Oratory parishes of Assumption and St. Boniface in Brooklyn, New York.
