Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

The Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (Archidiœcesis Paulopolitana et Minneapolitana) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. It is led by an archbishop who administers the archdiocese from the cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. The archbishop has both a cathedral and co-cathedral: the mother church – the Cathedral of Saint Paul in Saint Paul, and the co-cathedral, the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis.

The archdiocese has 188 parish churches in twelve counties of Minnesota. It counts in its membership an approximate total of 750,000 people. It has two seminaries, the Saint Paul Seminary and Saint John Vianney College Seminary. Its official newspaper is The Catholic Spirit.

Pre-Diocesan
The first Catholic presence in present day Minnesota was recorded in 1680. Louis Hennepin, a Belgian Franciscan Recollect and explorer, found a waterfall on the upper Mississippi River. Hennepin named the waterfall the Chutes de Saint-Antoine or St. Anthony Falls after his patron saint, Anthony of Padua. The French formally claimed the territory in 1689.

In 1727, René Boucher de La Perrière and Michel Guignas built Fort Beauharnois on the shore of Lake Pepin. They established St. Michael the Archangel, the first Catholic chapel in Minnesota. The French abandoned the fort and the chapel in the 1750s during the French and Indian War. After the war ended, the Spanish took over the French territories in the Great Plains and Old Northwest, including Minnesota. Some French-speaking colonists from Switzerland moved from their original settlements near Fort Garry in Manitoba to a location close to Saint Anthony Falls. The settlement became known as Saint Pierre.

After the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, the United States gained control of vast areas in the continent, including present day Minnesota. Pope Leo XII in 1826 erected the Diocese of Saint Louis, giving it jurisdiction over Minnesota and other parts of the region. In 1837, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Dubuque, with jurisdiction over the new Wisconsin Territory, which included Minnesota.

Bishop Mathias Loras of Dubuque in 1839 visited Fort Snelling and Saint Pierre. In 1840, Loras sent Lucien Galtier to Minnesota as a missionary. Galtier learned that a group of Catholic from the Red River Colony had settled on the east bank of the Mississippi River. He decided that it was a good location for a church as it was near a steamboat landing. Two French settlers offered a location for a church, and other settlers provided materials and labor to build a log chapel. Galtier wrote, "I had previously to this time fixed my residence at Saint Peter's and as the name of Paul is generally connected with that of Peter... I called it Saint Paul." With the gradual increase of population about the chapel, the community developed into a village known as Saint Paul's Landing.

Joseph Crétin
Pope Pius IX on July 19, 1850 erected the Diocese of Saint Paul in Minnesota, taking its territory from the Diocese of Dubuque. The new diocese covered all of the new Minnesota Territory, which included Minnesota and the future states of North Dakota and South Dakota. The pope named Monsignor Joseph Crétin of St. Louis as the first bishop of Saint Paul in Minnesota.

In addition to the French Canadians large contingents of Irish and German Catholics arrived, who located in St. Paul, and in places along the Mississippi, St. Croix, and Minnesota Rivers. In 1851, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet came to St. Paul, and soon opened schools at St. Paul and St. Anthony Falls.

Thomas Grace
In 1859, Reverend Thomas Grace was named Bishop of St. Paul. The number of Catholics in the diocese continued to grow, with many coming from Bohemia and Poland. The number of priests grew with the increase of the people, and they were so chosen as to correspond to the needs of the parishes. Hospitals were opened at Minneapolis and New Ulm, orphan asylums were erected at St. Paul and Minneapolis, and homes were established for the aged poor. In 1875, the Diocese of Saint Paul was transferred from the ecclesiastical province of St. Louis to that of Milwaukee. John Ireland was appointed coadjutor to Bishop Grace, whom he succeeded in 1884.

John Ireland


John Ireland was known as a strong-willed figure, and was called the "consecrated blizzard of the Northwest". During his time as bishop, he established the College of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul Seminary, and Saint Thomas Academy. He constructed the Cathedral of Saint Paul and the Basilica of Saint Mary. Pope Leo XIII elevated the see to the rank of archdiocese on May 4, 1888, and its name was changed to reflect this. Pope Leo XIII erected the Diocese of Winona in 1889, taking southern Minnesota from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul.

While he was an empire builder, Ireland was not without controversy; the author of The Church and Modern Society (1897), Ireland opposed the use of foreign languages in American Catholic churches and parochial schools. National (ethnic) parishes were common at the time because of the large influx of immigrants to the U.S. from European countries. In this, he differed from Michael Corrigan, Archbishop of New York, who believed that the more quickly Catholics gave up their native languages, customs, and traditions in order to assimilate into a Protestant culture, the sooner they would forsake their religion as well. Different views on the so-called "Americanization" of the Catholic Church in the United States split the hierarchy in the 1890s. Ireland's insistence on Americanization led to the unfortunate circumstance of Ruthenian Catholic priest Alexis Toth and his congregation becoming Russian Orthodox. Ireland died on September 25, 1918.

Austin Dowling
On January 31, 1919, Pope Benedict XV appointed Austin Dowling to suceed Ireland. In his address at his installation on March 25, 1919, Dowling described himself as "the unknown, the unexpected, [and] the undistinguished successor of the great Archbishop Ireland." Downling's legacy included establishing Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary and the Archbishop Ireland's Education Fund. He improved Saint Paul Seminary and was on the board of Education of the National Catholic Welfare Council (or "NCWC," now known as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or USCCB). Specifically, author Marvin O'Connell credited Dowling as "one of the leading lights" from the NCWC's inception, who headed NCWC's education department, which put him in direct contact with the Catholic Education Association. He passed away on November 29, 1930.

John Gregory Murray
Murray was appointed by Pius XI as the third archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul on October 29, 1931.

In 1941, the archdiocese hosted the Ninth National Eucharistic Congress, which attracted hundreds of thousands of attendees and culminated in a Eucharistic procession that involved 80,000 people. Events for the congress were held at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, Saint Paul Union Depot, the Minneapolis Auditorium, the St. Paul Auditorium, the Cathedral of St. Paul and the Basilica of St. Mary elsewhere in Minnesota.

On June 16, 1956, Pope Pius XII appointed Bishop Brady Coadjutor Archbishop of St. Paul, Minnesota due to Murray's failing health. Murray died of cancer in St. Paul on October 11, 1956, at age 79. He is interred at Resurrection Cemetery in Mendota Heights, Minnesota.

William O. Brady
Brady succeeded John Gregory Murray as Archbishop of St. Paul upon Murray's death on October 11, 1956.

On November 18, 1957, Pope Pius XII founded the Diocese of New Ulm, taking its territory from the Archdiocese of Saint Paul. The pope named Monsignor Alphonse Schladweiler of Saint Paul as the first bishop of New Ulm.

Brady died on October 1, 1961.

Leo Binz
On December 16, 1961 Pope John XXIII named Binz the seventh bishop and fifth archbishop of Saint Paul. He was installed on April 28, 1962.

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (1966-present)
On July 11, 1966 the Holy See altered the name of the archdiocese to reflect the equal stature of the Twin Cities by naming the Basilica of Saint Mary in Minneapolis as co-cathedral of the archdiocese and adding Minneapolis to the title of the archdiocese. Subsequently, Leo Binz was the first archbishop to hold the title of Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.

As seminary enrollment declined, Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary was closed down in 1971, with Saint John Vianney College Seminary established in 1968 as a replacement for the old high school system.

As Binz's health began to decline, he requested and received a coadjutor. Pope Paul VI named the Coadjutor Bishop of Wichita Leo Christopher Byrne coadjutor archbishop on July 31, 1967. Binz allowed Archbishop Byrne to take greater control of the administration of the archdiocese. Byrne, however, died on October 21, 1974.

Pope Paul VI accepted Archbishop Binz's resignation on May 21, 1975.

John Roach
John Roach, originally a priest of the Archdiocese and at the time of Binz's resignation an auxuliary bishop, was appointed archsbihop to succeed Binz. On February 22, 1994, Harry Flynn was appointed by John Paul II as the coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. Roach retired on September 8, 1995.

Harry Flynn
With Roach's retirement, Coadjutor Archbishop Harry Flynn assumed the full archbishopric. Under Flynn, the Saint Paul Seminary and Saint John Vianney College Seminary received major reforms, and the Cathedral of Saint Paul had its roof completely replaced.

After serving as archbishop for 12 years, Flynn requested that the pope assign him a coadjutor archbishop. On April 24, 2007, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Bishop John Nienstedt as Flynn's coadjutor.

John Nienstedt
When the pope accepted Flynn's retirement on May 2, 2008, Nienstedt automatically succeeded him as the eighth archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis.

Nienstedt's tenure as archbishop was tumultuous. In October 2010, Nienstedt announced a strategic plan that called for 21 parishes to be merged into 14 neighboring parishes. These and two later mergers reduced the number of parishes in the archdiocese from 213 in October 2010 to 188 in July 2013.

In November 2012, priest Curtis Wehmeyer pled guilty to 20 sex abuse and child pornography charges. In 2013, MPR News obtained a letter revealing that an archdiocesan officials, including Archbishop Nienstedt and vicar general Reverend Kevin McDonough - brother of Obama White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough - had known of the archdiocesan decision in 2011 to cover up an allegation suggesting that Wehmeyer had sexually abused two brothers in his camper. When the reported abuse took place, the camper was parked outside Blessed Sacrament Church in St. Paul, where Wehmeyer served for six years and where the mother of the boys was employed. In 2015, Wehmeyer was laicized by the Vatican while serving a five-year prison sentence.

In January 2015, the Archdiocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

On June 15, 2015, Pope Francis accepted the resignations of Archbishop John Nienstedt and Auxiliary Bishop Lee A. Piché to help clear the air in the Archdiocese surrounding the abuse cases and bankruptcy. The same day, Francis appointed Bernard Hebda as its apostolic administrator to serve until a new archbishop would be installed, although Hebda remained as the Coadjutor Archbishop of Newark.

Bernard Hebda
During Hebda's term as administrator, the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis reached agreement on a civil settlement with officials of Ramsey County on procedures to prevent child sexual abuse.

On March 24, 2016, Hebda was named archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, at which point his appointment as coadjutor archbishop of Newark ended. He was installed in the Cathedral of Saint Paul in St. Paul, Minnesota, on May 13, 2016.

In May 2018, the Archdiocese of St Paul and Minneapolis agreed to pay victims of clergy sexual abuse a total of $210 million in settlement, which awaited court approval. By the time the settlement was issued, 91 priests who served in the archdiocese were accused of sexually abusing 450 victims. In June 2018, the archdiocese filed for bankruptcy reorganization in order to find enough money to pay for the settlement. Once approved, the settlement became the second largest in any Catholic bankruptcy case in United States history and largest overall for any archdiocese which was forced into bankruptcy. In September 2018, survivors of clergy abuse officially concluded a month-long vote which resulted in the approval the settlement; the vote had started on August 21. The settlement was then approved by a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge.

In the summer of 2019, Hebda announced that he would be calling an archdiocesan synod. This would be the first synod held in the archdiocese in eight decades; in his initial announcement on June 7, Hebda said that, "In the time that [he has] served in this archdiocese, [he has] come to believe that [the] local Church is particularly ripe for a synod". In a Mass the following Saturday evening for the Solemn Vigil of Pentecost, Hebda formally announced that a synod would take place; two years later, at a Mass commemorating the same holy day, the synod was officially convoked. It culminated in June of 2022 with an archdiocesan synodal assembly. Hebda released a pastoral letter, "You Shall Be My Witnesses", on the feast of Christ the King in 2022.

Seminaries
The Archdiocese has two seminaries,


 * Saint John Vianney College Seminary
 * Saint Paul Seminary

Both seminaries are located on the campus of the University of St. Thomas. From 1923 to 1971, the archdiocese operated a high school seminary, Nazareth Hall Preparatory Seminary.

While the majority of archdiocesan seminarians receive their formation at Saint Paul or Saint John Vianney, some go to Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary in Winona, Minnesota or the Pontifical North American College in Rome.

Bishops
This is a list of the bishops who have served the archdiocese.

Forty-two priests of the diocese have become bishops.

Bishops of Saint Paul

 * 1) Joseph Crétin (1850–1857)
 * 2) Thomas Langdon Grace, O.P. (1859–1884)
 * 3) John Ireland (1884–1888; coadjutor bishop 1875–1884)l elevated to archbishop with elevation of diocese

Archbishops of Saint Paul

 * 1) John Ireland (1888–1918)
 * 2) Austin Dowling (1919–1930)
 * 3) John Gregory Murray (1931–1956)
 * 4) William O. Brady (1956–1961); Coadjutor Archbishop (1956)
 * 5) Leo Binz (1961–1966); title changed with title of see

Archbishops of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

 * 1) Leo Binz (see above 1966–1975) - Leo Christopher Byrne, Coadjutor Archbishop (1967–1974); died without succeeding to see
 * 2) John Robert Roach (1975–1995)
 * 3) Harry Joseph Flynn (1995–2008); Coadjutor Archbishop (1994-1995)
 * 4) John Clayton Nienstedt (2008–2015); Coadjutor Archbishop (2007-2008)
 * 5) Bernard Hebda (2016–present)

Current auxiliary bishops

 * Michael Izen (2023–present)

Former auxiliary bishops

 * John Jeremiah Lawler (1910–1916), appointed Bishop of Lead
 * James Joseph Byrne (1947–1956), appointed Bishop of Boise and later Archbishop of Dubuque
 * Leonard Philip Cowley (1957–1973)
 * Gerald Francis O'Keefe (1961–1966), appointed Bishop of Davenport
 * James P. Shannon (1965–1968)
 * John Robert Roach (1971–1975), appointed Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
 * Raymond Alphonse Lucker (1971–1975), appointed Bishop of New Ulm
 * Paul Vincent Dudley (1976–1978), appointed Bishop of Sioux Falls
 * John Francis Kinney (1976–1982), appointed Bishop of Bismarck and later Bishop of Saint Cloud
 * William Henry Bullock (1980–1987), appointed Bishop of Des Moines and later Bishop of Madison
 * James Richard Ham, M.M. (1980–1990)
 * Robert J. Carlson (1984–1994), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Sioux Falls and later Bishop of Sioux Falls, Bishop of Saginaw, and Archbishop of St. Louis
 * Joseph Charron, C.PP.S. (1990–1994), appointed Bishop of Des Moines
 * Lawrence Welsh (1991–1999)
 * Frederick F. Campbell (1999–2004), appointed Bishop of Columbus
 * Richard Pates (2000–2008), appointed Bishop of Des Moines
 * Lee A. Piché (2009–2015), resigned
 * Andrew H. Cozzens (2013–2021), appointed Bishop of Crookston
 * Joseph Andrew Williams (2022–2024), appointed coadjutor Bishop of Camden

Other priests of the diocese who became bishops

 * John Loughlin, appointed Bishop of Brooklyn in 1853
 * Louis Joseph Mary Theodore de Goesbriand, appointed Bishop of Burlington in 1853
 * James McGolrick, appointed Bishop of Duluth in 1889
 * Patrick Delany, appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Hobart, Australia in 1893
 * Thomas O'Gorman, appointed Bishop of Sioux Falls in 1896
 * James Trobec, appointed Bishop of Saint Cloud in 1897
 * Alexander Christie, appointed Bishop of Vancouver Island in 1898
 * James John Keane, appointed Bishop of Cheyenne in 1902
 * John Stariha, appointed Bishop of Lead in 1902
 * Joseph Francis Busch, appointed Bishop of Lead in 1910
 * Timothy J. Corbett, appointed Bishop of Crookston in 1910
 * Patrick Richard Heffron, appointed Bishop of Winona in 1910
 * James Albert Duffy, appointed Bishop of Kearney in 1913
 * Thomas Anthony Welch, appointed Bishop of Duluth in 1925
 * James Louis Connolly, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Fall River in 1945
 * Francis Joseph Schenk, appointed Bishop of Crookston in 1945
 * Alphonse James Schladweiler, appointed Bishop of New Ulm in 1957
 * Nicolas Eugene Walsh, appointed Bishop of Yakima in 1974
 * Peter Forsyth Christensen, appointed Bishop of Superior in 2007
 * John Marvin LeVoir, appointed Bishop of New Ulm in 2008
 * Paul David Sirba, appointed Bishop of Duluth in 2009
 * Donald Edward DeGrood, appointed Bishop of Sioux Falls in 2019

Education
The Catholic Schools of the Archdiocese of Saint and Minneapolis as of 2023 had 79 elementary schools and 16 high schools with a total student enrollment of approximately 31,000.

Archdiocesan high schools

 * Academy of Holy Angels – Richfield
 * Benilde-St. Margaret's – St. Louis Park
 * Bethlehem Academy – Faribault
 * Chesterton Academy – Hopkins
 * Cretin-Derham Hall – St. Paul
 * Cristo Rey Jesuit High School – Minneapolis
 * DeLaSalle High School – Minneapolis
 * Hill-Murray School – Maplewood
 * Holy Family Catholic High School – Victoria
 * Holy Spirit Academy – Monticello
 * Providence Academy – Plymouth
 * Saint Agnes School – St. Paul
 * Saint Thomas Academy – Mendota Heights
 * Totino-Grace High School – Fridley
 * Unity Catholic High School - Burnsville
 * Visitation School – Mendota Heights

Minnesota

 * Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis (Metropolitan See)
 * Diocese of Crookston
 * Diocese of Duluth
 * Diocese of New Ulm
 * Diocese of Saint Cloud
 * Diocese of Winona–Rochester

North Dakota

 * Diocese of Bismarck
 * Diocese of Fargo

South Dakota

 * Diocese of Rapid City
 * Diocese of Sioux Falls

Notable parishes

 * Cathedral of Saint Paul – Saint Paul, mother church of the archdiocese
 * Basilica of Saint Mary – Minneapolis, first American basilica
 * Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church – Minneapolis, oldest church building in continuous use in Minneapolis
 * Saint Peter's Church – Mendota, oldest active parish in the archdiocese
 * Saint Michael Catholic Church – Saint Michael, parish with the most full time priests and largest mass attendance in the archdiocese