:''Former names: Prefecture Apostolic of Alaska (1894-1917), Vicariate Apostolic of Alaska (1917-1962).'' The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks ( la, Dioecesis de Fairbanks) is an ecclesiastical territory or

diocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associ ...

of the

Roman Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in the northwestern

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

, comprising the northern regions of the state of

Alaska Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U ...

. As of 2015, the diocese had 47 parishes and missions, with 17 priests, to serve 13,500 Catholics, in an area of , making it the largest diocese in the United States geographically. It also has seven religious sisters and two religious brothers. It is led by a

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ...

who serves as

pastor A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...

of the

mother church Mother church or matrice is a term depicting the Christian Church as a mother in her functions of nourishing and protecting the believer. It may also refer to the primary church of a Christian denomination or diocese, i.e. a cathedral or a metropo ...

, Sacred Heart Cathedral in the City of Fairbanks. The diocese is a

suffragan A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau.

History

John Althoff, a young Dutch priest of the Canadian Diocese of Vancouver Island, established the first permanent Catholic presence in the U. S. territory of

when he founded Saint Rose of Lima Church in Wrangell on 3 May 1879. Having been assigned responsibility for missions in Alaska, Bishop Charles J. Seghers of the Diocese of Vancouver Island sent him to serve Wrangell, the Cassiar mining district on the Stikine River, and the former Russian capital of Sitka, where he would celebrate Mass in an old Russian carriage barn. Fr. Althoff subsequently moved to Juneau following the discovery of gold in the vicinity and celebrated the first mass and baptism in an interdenominational "Log Cabin Church" on 17 July 1882. The missions continued to expand as more missionaries arrived in the region. On 27 July 1894,

Pope Leo XIII Pope Leo XIII ( it, Leone XIII; born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci; 2 March 1810 – 20 July 1903) was the head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 to his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the second-ol ...

erected the Prefecture Apostolic of Alaska, taking the entire territory of

from two Canadian dioceses - the Diocese of Vancouver Island and the Diocese of New Westminster, with its see in Juneau. On 22 December 1916,

Pope Benedict XV Pope Benedict XV (Ecclesiastical Latin, Latin: ''Benedictus XV''; it, Benedetto XV), born Giacomo Paolo Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, name=, group= (; 21 November 185422 January 1922), was head of the Catholic Church from 1914 until his deat ...

elevated this jurisdiction to an vicariate apostolic. He subsequently appointed Joseph Raphael John Crimont, until then the Prefect Apostolic of Alaska, as the first Vicar Apostolic of Alaska on 15 February 1917 and as titular Titular Bishop of Ammaedara on 22 March 1917. The jurisdiction actually got its first bishop when he received episcopal ordination on 25 July 1917. On 23 June 1951,

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII ( it, Pio XII), born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli (; 2 March 18769 October 1958), was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death in October 1958. Before his e ...

erected the Diocese of Juneau, taking the present territory of the

Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associat ...

from the Vicariate Apostolic of Alaska, and simultaneously changed the title of the vicariate apostolic to Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Alaska and moved its see to Fairbanks. On 8 August 1962,

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII ( la, Ioannes XXIII; it, Giovanni XXIII; born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli, ; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Roman Catholic Church, Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City, Vatican City State from 28 Oc ...

erected the Diocese of Fairbanks in the territory of the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Alaska. The first seven Bishops of Fairbanks were Jesuit missionaries. On June 7, 2002,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

appointed

Donald Joseph Kettler Donald Joseph Kettler (born November 26, 1944) is an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of St. Cloud from 2013 to 2022. Kettler previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks from 2002 to 2013 ...

as the first non-Jesuit Bishop of Fairbanks. On 22 January 1966,

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI ( la, Paulus VI; it, Paolo VI; born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini, ; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 to his death in Augus ...

erected the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Anchorage with territory taken from the Diocese of Juneau, assigning the Diocese of Fairbanks and the Diocese of Juneau as suffragans of the new metropolitan see. On November 12, 2019, the Vatican removed the Diocese of Fairbanks from its list of missionary dioceses, transferring control of the diocese from the

Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples A congregation is a large gathering of people, often for the purpose of worship. Congregation may also refer to: * Church (congregation), a Christian organization meeting in a particular place for worship *Congregation (Roman Curia), an administr ...

to the Congregation for Bishops. Bishop Zielinski said that he hoped the move would help the shortage of priests in the diocese. At the time of that announcement, the diocese had only 17 priests to staff 46 parishes and missions. On 17 September 2020, Pope Francis suppressed the Diocese of Anchorage and the Diocese of Juneau and erected the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau with their combined territory (which constitutes the original territory of the Diocese of Juneau), designating the Diocese of Fairbanks as the only suffragan of the new metropolitan see.

Sexual abuse cases

In February 2008, the diocese announced plans to file for

Chapter 11 Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, wheth ...

bankruptcy, claiming inability to pay the 140 plaintiffs who filed claims against the diocese for sexual abuse by priests or church workers dating from the 1950s to the early 1980s. The Society of Jesus, Oregon Province, was named as a co-defendant in the case, and settled for $50 million. The diocese, which reports an operating budget of approximately $6 million, claims one of the diocese's insurance carriers failed to "participate meaningfully". When bankruptcy was officially filed in 2012, it was acknowledged that reports of abuse spanned "over the last six decades." Over time, the Diocese's list of "credibly accused" clergy grew as well.

Bishops and other ordinaries

Prefects Apostolic of Alaska

# Pascal Tosi (1894–1897) # Jean-Baptiste René (1897–1904) # Joseph Raphael John Crimont (1904–1917), appointed Vicar Apostolic of Alaska

Vicars Apostolic of Alaska

# Joseph Raphael John Crimont (1917–1945) # Walter James Fitzgerald (1945–1947) # Francis Doyle Gleeson (1948–1951), title changed with change of title of vicariate apostolic

Vicar Apostolic of Northern AlaskaJurisdiction for the territory now compromising the Diocese of Fairbanks

# Francis Doyle Gleeson (1951-1962); Appointed first Bishop of Fairbanks

Bishops of Fairbanks

# Francis Doyle Gleeson (1962–1968)
- George Theodore Boileau ( Coadjutor Bishop 1964–1965), died before succession # Robert Louis Whelan (1968–1985) # Michael Joseph Kaniecki (1985–2000) #

(2002–2013), appointed Bishop of Saint Cloud # Chad William Zielinski (2014–2022), appointed Bishop of New Ulm

Other priest of the Vicariate of Alaska who became a bishop

Robert Dermot O'Flanagan Robert Dermot O'Flanagan (March 9, 1901 – December 31, 1972) was an Irish-born American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who served as the first bishop of the Diocese of Juneau in Alaska from 1951 to 1968. Biography Early life Robert O'F ...

, appointed Bishop of Juneau in 1951

Education

The diocese has 2 schools for education. * Immaculate Conception Elementary, Fairbanks *

Monroe Catholic High School Monroe Catholic High School is a private, Roman Catholic high school in Fairbanks, Alaska. It is the only Catholic high school in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks. It is the northernmost Roman Catholic high school in the Americas. Backgr ...

, Fairbanks

Health care

*Hospital ministry - Catholic services to the sick & injured in existing hospitals & nursing homes. *Stephen ministry - interdenominational companions for people in grief, illness, loss, family breakdown, etc.

Media

The diocese provides communication to its community by: * ''The Alaskan Shepherd'', a newsletter * KNOM radio. Established in 1971, KNOM is the oldest Catholic

radio station Radio broadcasting is transmission of audio (sound), sometimes with related metadata, by radio waves to radio receivers belonging to a public audience. In terrestrial radio broadcasting the radio waves are broadcast by a land-based radi ...

in the country. *

KQHE KQHE (92.7 FM) is a radio station licensed to serve the Fairbanks, Alaska area, including Fairbanks, North Pole, and Nenana. The station is owned by Little Flower Ministries and airs a Catholic religious format, using a mixture of locally produc ...

radio. Established in 2012.

Footnotes

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks Official Site

{{authority control Non-profit organizations based in Fairbanks, Alaska Religious organizations established in 1894 Fairbanks Fairbanks Fairbanks Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008