Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis - History

History

The Catholics of the land that is now Indiana have been shepherded by many clerics from the start of the colonization of America. The earliest records of the Catholic Church in Vincennes date to 1749, but French Jesuit missionaries had been in the area as early as the 1730s.. In these early years, the Church in Indiana was under the authority of the Diocese of Quebec, Canada. In its early years, the faith community experienced suffering during the American Revolution, hostility from Native Americans, and epidemics that swept through the frontier, as well as a profound lack of money and priests to minister to the people.

In 1789, Pope Pius VI created the first Catholic diocese in the United States, the Diocese of Baltimore. Indiana came under the authority of Bishop John Carroll of Baltimore, and in 1791 he sent Fr. Benedict Joseph Flaget to succeed Fr. Pierre Gibault at the fledgling parish of St. Francis Xavier in Vincennes. In 1808 Pope Pius VII divided the United States and its territories into five dioceses, and the Northwest Territories came under the authority of the then-Diocese of Bardstown with Benedict Flaget as its bishop.

In 1832, Bishop Flaget, along with Bishop Joseph Rosati of St. Louis, Missouri, petitioned the Holy See to name Fr./Dr. Simon Bruté de Rémur as the first Bishop of Vincennes. The Diocese was created by Papal Decree on May 6, 1834 and Fr. Bruté was elevated to Bishop on October 28. At the time of his installation, there were only 3 priests in his diocese which covered all of Indiana and the eastern third of Illinois. Bishop Bruté made a point to visit each Catholic family in his diocese, regardless of the distance from his rectory. His devotion to his diocese contributed to his demise, as he caught a cold while going to a provincial council in Baltimore, which weakened his immune system and he continued to minister despite this.

Despite the consecration of a cathedral, Bishop de Hailandière experienced many problems with the size of the diocese, leading to his resignation in 1847. His successor, John Stephen Bazin, was the first bishop ordained in Indiana and quickly delegated authority to two vicars general. He died shortly thereafter, having served just six months. His successor, Maurice de Saint-Palais, had to contend with unresolved monetary issues from Hailandière's episcopacy and a cholera epidemic, all while expanding the educational and ministerial opportunities. It was under Saint-Palais' watch that Mother Theodore Guerin started an orphanage in Vincennes, the monks from Einsiedeln, Switzerland came to found an abbey and seminary in southern Indiana, St. Ann's opened as a school for Negroes and the Holy See added a suffragan diocese in northern Indiana at Fort Wayne.

Bishop de Saint-Palais also had to contend with the call for soldiers in the American Civil War. Several priests from the Diocese of Vincennes served as chaplains, and one Fr. Ernest Audran was drafted as a soldier in 1864. De St. Palais did not preach in regards to the topic of the Emancipation Proclamation because he feared that doing so would venture too much into politics and would violate his character. He recognized that Indianapolis was quickly growing and was the eighth-largest city in the United States as of 1870 but he relegated the decision to move the seat of the diocese there to his successor, Silas Chatard. Despite moving the see to Indianapolis and ordering the new cathedral, Chatard's reign was marked not by his accomplishments, but by his poor health, having been paralyzed by a stroke in 1900.

Chatard's successor, Joseph Chartrand, expanded the education of young children in the diocese, opening more than 25 elementary and secondary schools in his first 14 years. When he died, the diocese had 126 parochial schools and 19 secondary schools. He also faced much adversity during his time as bishop. The outbreak of World War I led to many sermons against war as well as the rise of Communism shortly thereafter. Chartrand also dealt with threats by the Ku Klux Klan by publishing a list of members' names in the newspaper. During the years of the Great Depression, he dispensed the entire diocese from fasting except on Fridays during Lent.

Joseph Elmer Ritter succeeded Chartrand as Bishop of Indianapolis, having served as auxiliary bishop under Chartrand. In 1937, he ordered that three of the girls' schools in the diocese integrate and allow students of all races. Later he integrated all of the schools under threat of closure. In addition to integrating schools, Ritter was named Archbishop of Indianapolis when the diocese was elevated in October 1944 to a metropolitan archdiocese. He left the archdiocese to become the archbishop and later cardinal of St. Louis.

Archbishop Paul C. Schulte served as the leader of the archdiocese from 1946 until 1970 and was called to Rome for the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council. He was known for his humility, for building 3 high schools in the Indianapolis area and for leading his flock through the tumultuous times of the 1960s. He retired as the oldest and longest-serving bishop in America. Schulte's successor, George J. Biskup, established the first Priests' Senate in order to expedite decisions at the diocesan level.

Archbishop Edward T. O'Meara worked to consolidate many of the archdiocesan offices, and used the former site of Cathedral High School as a building for the offices. He was very vocal regarding the shortage of priests and the need to remain stalwart on the issue of female clergy even in the face of a shortage as well as the right-to-life and needs of the poor. His successor, Daniel M. Buechlein, continued his devotion to life, education, and the poor through his ministry, with a particular focus on education to the point that newspapers called him "the education bishop." On September 21, 2011, the Vatican granted Buechlein an early retirement at age 73 due to health reasons. Auxiliary Bishop Christopher Coyne, appointed by the Pope in March 2011 to assist the ailing Buechlein with his duties, is serving as Apostolic Administrator until the Pope appoints the next Archbishop.