The Diocese of Davenport () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, or diocese, of the Catholic Church for the southeastern quarter of the state of Iowa in the United States.
The See of Davenport is currently vacant. The previous bishop, Thomas Zinkula, became Archbishop of Dubuque in 2023. The Very Rev. Kenneth Kunz is the diocesan administrator while the See is vacant. The diocese is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. The see city for the diocese is Davenport, where Sacred Heart Cathedral is located.
Territory
The Diocese of Davenport covers .
The eastern border is the Mississippi River. The northern border comprises Jasper, Poweshiek, Iowa, Johnson, Cedar, and Clinton counties. The western border comprises Jasper, Marion, Monroe, and Appanoose counties. The southern border is the Missouri state line.
History
1830 to 1881
From the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 down to 1827, the present day Diocese of Davenport was included in the Diocese of New Orleans. The first Catholic missionaries arrived in the Iowa area during the early 1830s, under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of St. Louis. In 1837, the Vatican erected the Diocese of Dubuque, covering Iowa and adjoining territories.
St. Anthony's Parish in Davenport was established around 1837 by Dominican missionary Samuel Mazzuchelli. Its church was built in 1838 on land donated by French-Potawatomi entrepreneur Antoine Le Claire. The building served as a church, city hall, courthouse, schoolhouse, public forum, and gathering place for the citizens of Davenport.
In 1839, French missionary Jean-Antoine-Marie Pelamourgues was named the first resident pastor of St. Anthony's. His duties included attending the communities of Muscatine, Burlington, Iowa City, Columbus Junction, DeWitt, Lyons, and Stephenson, Illinois, across the Mississippi River from Davenport. Pelamourgues studied to improve his English; when German immigrants began to arrive, he took up that language as well. He helped establish the parish of St. Kunigunda in Davenport, where services were held in Latin and German. When the German pastor at St. Kunigunda refused to serve the needs of Irish immigrants who settled in the west end, Pelamourgues built St. Mary's two blocks away.
Bishop John Hennessy, the third bishop of Dubuque, requested that the Vatican divide Iowa into two dioceses, with the new diocese covering the lower half of the state. Hennessy suggested locating the see of the new diocese in Des Moines, but the Vatican chose Davenport instead.
1881 to 1900
On May 8, 1881, Pope Leo XIII erected the Diocese of Davenport. He selected Monsignor John McMullen, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago, to serve as the first bishop.
As bishop, McMullen chose St. Margaret's Church in Davenport as the new cathedral. Soon after arriving in Davenport, McMullen went to visit the parishes in his diocese. He traveled the diocese by stagecoach, buggy, lumber wagon, hand car and train. While on visitation, he administered confirmations and other sacraments in many locations.
McMullen called the diocese's first synod in 1882 to set its procedures and regulations. In September 1882, he founded St. Ambrose, a seminary and school of commerce in Davenport. By December 1882, McMullen had confirmed over 13,000 people. After almost two years as bishop, McMullen died in 1883.
Reverend Henry Cosgrove, the diocesan administrator and cathedral rector, was appointed by Leo XIII as the second bishop of Davenport in 1884. Deciding that St. Margaret's was no longer adequate as a cathedral, Cosgrove constructed Sacred Heart Cathedral in 1891 to replace it. He established as Sacred Heart Asylum in Davenport 1895, operated by the Sisters Servants of the Sacred Heart. The Congregation of the Humility of Mary took over the asylum in 1896. Sacred Heart Asylum later became St. Vincent's Home for orphans
1900 to 1930
Cosgrove supported the national Temperance Movement and called for a moral crusade in the diocese, especially in Davenport. In 1903, he was quoted in the national media as labeling Davenport "the wicked city of its size in America". This was due to the Bucktown District, an area of speakeasies and brothels close to the cathedral.