The Roman Catholic Diocese of Lincoln ( la, Dioecesis Lincolnensis) is a

Catholic 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 ...

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 associa ...

Nebraska Nebraska () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by South Dakota to the north; Iowa to the east and Missouri to the southeast, both across the Missouri River; Kansas to the south; Colorado to the sout ...

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, and comprises the majority of the eastern and central portions of the state south of the

Platte River The Platte River () is a major river in the State of Nebraska. It is about long; measured to its farthest source via its tributary, the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which itsel ...

. It is a

suffragan see A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, ...

to the archdiocese of Omaha. The episcopal see is in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...

. Bishop James D. Conley is the current ordinary of the Diocese. The Cathedral of the Risen Christ is the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the '' cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominatio ...

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest, often termed a parish priest, who might be assisted by one o ...

of the diocese.

History

The diocese was established on August 2, 1887, by

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-old ...

from the territory taken from the Diocese of Omaha."Brief History of the Diocese of Lincoln".

Catholic Diocese of Lincoln.
Retrieved 2015-03-19.
Archived 2015-03-19
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Wayback Machine
"Archdiocese History".

Archdiocese of Omaha.
Retrieved 2015-03-19.
Archived 2014-12-14
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Wayback Machine
In 1996, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz issued a statement forbidding Catholics in the diocese to join a number of organizations, including the Society of St. Pius X,

Call to Action Call to Action (CTA) is an American organization that advocates a variety of changes in the Catholic Church. Call To Action's goals are to change church teachings in such areas as mandatory celibacy for priests, the male-only priesthood, the selec ...

, Planned Parenthood,

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, the Hemlock Society, and various

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groups, under pain of excommunication.Bruskewitz, Fabian.
"Statement of Bishop Bruskewitz Excommunicating Certain Groups".
Reproduced a
CatholicCulture.org.
1996-03-19. Retrieved 2013-04-12. In 2006, the Diocese rejected the proposed undertaking of an audit by the National Review Board of the

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) is the episcopal conference of the Catholic Church in the United States. Founded in 1966 as the joint National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) and United States Catholic Conference (US ...

- which would have examined whether the Diocese had effectively implemented national guidelines on sex-abuse programs"Bishop Bruskewitz shoots back at National Review Board"
''Catholic World News'', April 2, 2006. In June 2014, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' National Review Board for the protection of children reported that the Lincoln diocese was the only one in the United States that had yet to comply with the USCCB's charter requiring every diocese to submit its procedures for the protection of children to the Review Board for an audit. According to a 2015 statement by Conley, the Lincoln Diocese has complied with all church and civil laws on child-abuse reporting and child protection. He stated that the audit process had been improved and that the diocese would now therefore participate. The Diocese of Lincoln was the only diocese in the United States that does not allow female altar servers, after the only other holdout ended its prohibition on females in 2006. It was joined by a church in the diocese of Phoenix in August 2011, when it announced that girls would no longer be allowed to serve at the altar. The diocese of Lincoln was one of the last American Catholic dioceses not to have a permanent diaconate, although there were a few permanent deacons who served in Lincoln who came from other diocese. In 2016, Conley gave permission for lay married men to begin discerning the permanent diaconate in cooperation with the archdiocese of Omaha's diaconate program. On May 28, 2021, Matthew Hecker became the first permanent deacon to be ordained for the diocese.

Demographics and statistics

''Source: *Diocese patron:

Immaculate Conception The Immaculate Conception is the belief that the Virgin Mary was free of original sin from the moment of her conception. It is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church, meaning that it is held to be a divinely revealed truth w ...

*Priests: 174 *Deacons: 1 permanent; 4 transitional *Seminarians: 30 *

Religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

priests: 10 *Religious sisters: 141 *Religious brothers: 8

Bishops

The bishops of the diocese and their years of service:"Bishops of Lincoln".

Diocese of Lincoln.
Retrieved 2015-03-19.
Archived 2015-03-19
a
Wayback Machine
# Thomas Bonacum (1887-1911) # John Henry Tihen (1911-1917), appointed Bishop of Denver # Charles Joseph O'Reilly (1918-1923) #

Francis Beckman Francis Joseph Beckman (October 25, 1875 – October 17, 1948) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln in Nebraska (1924–1930) and as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Dubuque in Iowa ( ...

(1924-1930), appointed Archbishop of Dubuque #

Louis Benedict Kucera Louis Benedict Kucera (August 24, 1888 – May 9, 1957) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln in Nebraska from 1930 until his death. Biography Early life Louis Kucera was born i ...

(1930-1957) #

James Vincent Casey James Vincent Casey (September 22, 1914 – March 14, 1986) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Lincoln, Nebraska (1957–1967) and Archbishop of Denver, Colorado (1967–1986). Biography Early life and ...

(1957-1967), formerly auxiliary bishop, appointed Archbishop of Denver # Glennon Patrick Flavin (1967-1992) # Fabian Bruskewitz (1992-2012) # James D. Conley (2012–present)

Priests who became bishops elsewhere

Robert F. Vasa Robert Francis Vasa (born May 7, 1951) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. On Monday, January 24, 2011, Vasa was named the coadjutor bishop to Bishop Daniel F. Walsh of the Diocese of Santa Rosa in California by Pope Benedic ...

, appointed Bishop of Baker in 1999 and later Bishop of Santa Rosa in California *

Thomas Olmsted Thomas James Olmsted (born January 21, 1947) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He was bishop of the Diocese of Phoenix in Arizona from 2003 to 2022. He previously served as bishop of the Diocese of Wichita in Kansas from 200 ...

, appointed Coadjutor Bishop (in 1999) and later Bishop of Wichita and Bishop of Phoenix * Michael Owen Jackels, appointed Bishop of Wichita in 2005 and later Archbishop of Dubuque *

John Folda John Thomas Folda (born August 8, 1961) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop of the Diocese of Fargo in North Dakota since 2013. Biography Early life John Thomas Folda was born on August 8, 196 ...

, appointed Bishop of Fargo in 2013

High schools

* Aquinas High School, David City * Sacred Heart High School, Falls City * St. Cecilia High School, Hastings * Lourdes Central Catholic High School, Nebraska City * Pius X High School, Lincoln * Bishop Neumann High School, Wahoo

References

External links

Diocesan website
{{authority control

Lincoln Lincoln most commonly refers to: * Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865), the sixteenth president of the United States * Lincoln, England, cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England * Lincoln, Nebraska, the capital of Nebraska, U.S. * Lincol ...

Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of Omaha Religious organizations established in 1887

1887 establishments in Nebraska