Tuesday, May 30, 2023

Viva the Archdiocese of Las Vegas- Updated

As I hinted in Sunday's post, there is some fairly big Church news that breaking today. What is this news? The creation of a new ecclesiastical province: the Archdiocese of Las Vegas.

All of the territory for this new metropolitan province comes from the Archdiocese of San Francisco. San Francisco is an enormous archdiocese. Until today it counted twelve dioceses as suffragan dioceses. Among those were the dioceses of Las Vegas, Reno, and Salt Lake City. Now, these three dioceses together comprise the Archdiocese of Las Vegas.

Going back to the late nineteenth century, Utah and most of Nevada were part of the same Vicariate Apostolic. This vast area was served by Lawrence Scanlan. Scanlan went on to become the first bishop of Salt Lake City. He was ordained a bishop on 29 June 1887 in San Francisco. As a bishop, he continued to have charge of this vast territory until his death on 10 May 1915 in Salt Lake City.

Considering the establishment of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas and the growth of the Catholic Church throughout the huge territory where he so faithfully ministered, it is interesting to remember that at the time of his death, Bishop Scanlan was not terribly optimistic about the future of the Roman Catholic Church in this part of the United States. It seems to me that Bishop Scanlan's skepticism about the Church's prospects here supports one of my main theological theses: hope only begins where optimism ends.

On 27 January 1891, Pope Leo XIII erected the Diocese of Salt Lake City. At that time, the diocese included most of Nevada. It was not until 27 March 1931 that Pope Pius XI created the Diocese of Reno. This diocese consisted of territory taken from the Dioceses of Sacramento and Salt Lake City. From its inception until 21 March 1995, the Diocese of Reno covered the entire state of Nevada. Pope John Paul II, splitting Nevada in two, made the Diocese of Las Vegas, all of its territory coming from the Diocese of Reno.

Cathedral of the Guardian Angels, Las Vegas, Nevada


If I am not mistaken, when the Archdiocese of Denver was erected in 1941, there was a proposal to move the Diocese of Salt Lake City into that metropolitan province, but this did not happen. Originally, Utah was to be aligned with Colorado. Despite the Holy See's creation in 1871 of the Vicariate Apostolic of Colorado and Utah, this alignment never really occurred.

The Vicariate of Colorado and Utah lasted until 1887 when Utah was designated a Vicariate Apostolic in its own right under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of San Francisco. As already mentioned, this vicariate and, from 1891 to 1931, this diocese, included most of Nevada. So, until today, the Diocese of Salt Lake City remained the eastern outpost of the vast metropolitan province of San Francisco.

Two bishops of Salt Lake City moved on to serve as archbishop of San Franciso: John Mitty and George Niederauer. I have to note that I was ordained a deacon in 2004 by then-Bishop Niederauer. Another bishop of Salt Lake City, William Weigand, went on to serve as bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento. Sacramento was the other diocese from which territory was taken in 1931 to establish the Diocese of Reno.

One more historical note I want to bring up is that the first native Utahn to be ordained a priest, Robert Dwyer, went on to serve as the second bishop of the Diocese of Reno. From there, he was named archbishop of Portland, Oregon. Dwyer, to date, remains one of only two priests of the Diocese of Salt Lake City to be consecrated bishop. The other is Duane Hunt, an adult convert to the faith, who served as the fifth bishop of Salt Lake City.

Interestingly, the metropolitan see of the new archdiocese is the youngest of the dioceses that comprise the province. Today's establishment of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas has the effect of elevating George Leo Thomas to the rank of archbishop. Archbishop Thomas, the third bishop of Las Vegas, has served there since 2018. Originally from Seattle, where he was an auxiliary bishop, he served as bishop of the Diocese of Helena, Montana before being sent by Pope Francis to Las Vegas. His suffragan bishops are Oscar Solis of Salt Lake City (my bishop and much-beloved friend) and Daniel Mueggenborg of Reno. Archbishop Thomas also has an auxiliary bishop: Gregory Gordon.

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