Our Hundred and Twenty-Fifth- I

Details: 03 August 2012

Anniversary

The late and well known scholar, Sister Loretta Gosen C.PP.S., who researched and authored the first volume of the history of the Diocese of Lincoln, began her book with these words: "On August 2, 1887, the 23,844 square miles of Nebraska, located south of the Platte River, became the Diocese of Lincoln by decree of Pope Leo XIII." He signed the Papal Bull on August 2, 1887, bringing this about, and then on August 9, 1887, he appointed Thomas Bonacum as the first and founding Bishop of Lincoln. The territory of this extensive Diocese is larger than the combined territory of the four States of Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Rhode Island, where there are fifteen separate Catholic dioceses. It embraces two time zones and is also larger than the entire island of Ireland, where there are 26 Catholic dioceses. This year, then, marks the 125th anniversary of the founding of the Diocese of Lincoln. This anniversary will be celebrated here in various ways, beginning with a special Solemn Pontifical Mass at the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln on August 15th, 2012. On that date, the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, there will also be special anniversary Masses celebrated in various parishes throughout our Diocese as well. It will be a wonderful occasion for all Catholics in this Diocese to thank God for the many blessings that He has showered upon our Diocese in this past century and a quarter, to ask His pardon for our faults and failings, and to beg Him anew for His continued blessing, grace, and guidance for the years ahead.

Reflecting on the diocesan history, Sister Loretta remarks that, looking at that history, we can see it as a part of "the plan of a kind Providence, Who has guided the Church since her beginning and will continue to care for her until the end of time" (Matthew 28:20; Ephesians 5:25-30). Sister Loretta suggested that we view "the development of the Catholic Church in the Diocese of Lincoln as a manifestation of God’s wisdom, guiding His people to love and serve Him and each other." In an exhortation to our Diocese for its diocesan centennial in 1987, she encouraged gratitude to God Who made the achievements of the Diocese possible and helped the present members of the Church "to gain encouragement and strength from all those noble people, known and unknown, who have woven the history of the Diocese. They understood their limitations and endured the stresses and even the tragedies of life without being overwhelmed. Through their personal industry and sacrifices they brought to fruition the divine plan in history."

Jurisdictional History

From her earliest days, after she emerged from the catacombs and ancient pagan persecutions in the early 4th century, the Catholic Church everywhere has usually and ordinarily found it helpful, for purposes of efficiency and effectiveness, to follow the boundaries of civil political units, whether national, international, or local, in drawing up her own internal administrative and jurisdictional boundaries. This is why from 1493, shortly after the first voyage of Christopher Columbus, the territory of the Diocese of Lincoln was considered to be under the ecclesiastical authority of the Bishops in Spain. This changed in 1682, when the explorer De La Salle claimed for the King of France all the land drained by the Mississippi River and its tributaries. The territory of the Diocese of Lincoln then came under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec. European history caused another change in 1763, when the territory reverted to Spain and was given briefly into the care of the Bishop of Santiago in Cuba. Then in the Napoleonic era France again took control, but before there could be an ecclesiastical change, Napoleon sold the Louisiana Territory to Thomas Jefferson in 1803, and our diocesan territory became part of the United States in the Louisiana Purchase, and was then placed under the spiritual care of Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, who almost immediately passed the spiritual jurisdiction over to the Bishop of New Orleans. Then in 1827, when Saint Louis became a Diocese, the territory of what is now the Diocese of Lincoln came under the jurisdiction of Bishop Rosati of that See. It remained part of Saint Louis until Blessed Pope Pius IX, in 1850, agreeing with the suggestions of the American Catholic Bishops, detached it from Saint Louis and made it part of a new Vicariate Apostolic called "The Vicariate of East of the Rocky Mountains", nicknamed "The Indian Territory".

The Vicariate consisted of what is now all of Nebraska, both Dakotas, most of Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho, and all of what is now Kansas. The new Vicar Apostolic was the Jesuit missionary from France, Father John Baptist Miege, who was consecrated a Bishop on March 25, 1851. At that time there were no priests and no Catholic churches in what is now Nebraska and very few Catholic people, mostly French fur traders and Indian converts to the Faith. Bishop Miege lived mainly in Missouri and in the Kansas area, but he did occasionally visit the Nebraska territory, and he tried to get the Church somewhat organized at least in Nebraska City and Plattsmouth, which had the largest population of any Nebraska towns in those times.

Further Developments

After many pleas to the Pope, the Holy Father allowed Bishop Miege to arrange in 1857 for the Vicariate to be split in two, making a Nebraska Vicariate and a Kansas Vicariate Even so, the Nebraska Vicariate extended from Canada to Kansas and from the Missouri River to the summit of the Rockies, which included part of Idaho, Montana, and the Dakotas. It was Bishop Miege who persuaded Benedictine monks from the Latrobe Abbey of Saint Vincent in Pennsylvania and later from Atchison in Kansas to make missionary visits to Southern Nebraska. When he retired in 1859, Bishop Miege was succeeded as the Vicar Apostolic of Nebraska by a Trappist Abbot, James O’Gorman, who had been born in Ireland, and who had been one of the founders of the Cistercian Abbey of New Melleray near Dubuque. Following his consecration as a Bishop in Saint Louis in 1859, and travelling by river boat, O’Gorman took up residence in Omaha, where he found one small shed used as a church building and a few visiting Benedictine missionaries, but only two resident priests in all of Nebraska. His tenure was marked by severe obstacles and hardships beyond belief which were met, however, by his unflagging energy, perseverance, and unconquerable faith. He was one of the American Bishops who participated in the First Vatican Council which closed in 1870 in Rome. At O’Gorman’s death in 1874, there were 14 Catholic churches in Nebraska and a growing number of priests. By that time too the population of the Nebraska Territory began to grow quite rapidly, mostly from European immigration and the promise of free Homestead land.

The final Vicar Apostolic of Nebraska (1876 to 1885) and then the first Bishop of Omaha (1885 to 1890) was Bishop James O’Connor, an Irish born priest of Philadelphia, who had previously been successively Rector of Saint Michael Seminary in Pittsburgh, convent chaplain in Youngstown. Ohio, Rector of Saint Charles Seminary in Philadelphia, and then, while a Parish Pastor, the spiritual director of Saint Katherine Drexel.