The Diocese of Evansville () is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Southwestern Indiana in the United States.
The mother church of the diocese is St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville. The diocese was formed in 1944 from what was then the Diocese of Indianapolis. It is part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Indianapolis. As of 2023, the bishop of Evansville is Joseph M. Siegel
Statistics and extent
The Diocese of Evansville includes all or part of 12 counties in Southwestern Indiana. While located within the diocese, St. Meinrad Archabbey is part of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
As of 2014, the diocese had a population of 90,800 Catholics (17.8% of the 510,626 total population) in 69 parishes (grouped into four deaneries) and four missions. The diocese had 71 priests (66 diocesan and five religious), 59 deacons, 234 lay religious (six brothers and 228 sisters) and ten seminarians.
History
1675 to 1944
During the 17th century, present day Indiana was part of the French colony of New France. The Diocese of Quebec, which had jurisdiction over the colony, sent French missionaries to the region. The first French Jesuit missionaries came to the Vincennes area around 1675.
After the British took control of New France in 1763, the Archdiocese of Quebec retained jurisdiction in the Indiana area. In 1776, the new United States claimed sovereignty over the area of Indiana. In 1787, Indiana became part of the Northwest Territory of the United States.
With the creation of the Diocese of Bardstown in Kentucky in 1810, supervision of the Indiana Territory shifted there. In 1827, the bishop of the Diocese of St. Louis assumed jurisdiction in the new state of Indiana. In 1834, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Vincennes, which included both Indiana and Illinois. Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Fort Wayne for Indiana 1857. The Evansville area would remain part of the Diocese of Vincennes, succeeded by the Diocese of Indianapolis, for the next 87 years.
1944 to 1965
Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Evansville from the Diocese of Indianapolis on October 21, 1944. The pope named Reverend Henry Grimmelsman, rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, as its first bishop. Grimmelsman named Assumption Church in Evansville as his cathedral.
At the time of its founding, the diocese included five deaneries, 63 parishes and missions; it had a population of 49,737 Catholics, and 75 diocesan priests. The diocese purchased the John Augustus Reitz Home in Evansville from the Daughters of Isabella for use as the chancery and bishop's residence. In 1948, Grimmelsman conducted the first synod for the diocese.
The diocese grew rapidly after World War II; 12 new parishes were founded between 1944 and 1962 in the Evansville suburbs, Jasper, Fort Branch and Bloomfield. The diocese also elevated mission churches in New Harmony and Oakland City to parishes. The diocese constructed the following facilities:
Mater Dei and Rex Mundi High Schools in Evansville
Magister Noster, a high school seminary, in Evansville
High schools in Ferdinand, Loogootee, and Vincennes
St. Benedict College in Ferdinand
Memorial Hospital in Jasper, sponsored by the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary A new facility for St. Mary's Medical Center in Evansville, sponsored by the Daughters of Charity
1965 to 1989
The population of downtown Evansville declined in the 1960s, forcing the diocese to close Assumption Cathedral in 1965. Holy Trinity Church, the home of the chancery since 1957, was named the pro-cathedral, for the diocese.
After Grimmelsman retired in 1965, Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Paul Leibold of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as the second bishop of Evansville. Three years later in 1969, Paul VI named Leibold as archbishop of Cincinnati. The pope appointed Monsignor Francis Shea of the Diocese of Nashville as Leibold's replacement in Evansville.
Shea constructed a new mission church in Santa Claus, Indiana, in 1967. The diocese also expanded facilities at St. John Home in Evansville and the Providence Home in Jasper. The diocese also made these changes:
Sold its high schools in Ferdinand and Loogootee to the local public school districts. Closed Rex Mundi and Magister Noster High Schools in Evansville. Rex Mundi went to Ivy Tech Community College and Magister Noster became the diocesan chancery. Closed St. Benedict College Consolidated the high schools in Vincennes Closed St. Ann Mission in Shelburn in 1978 Closed Our Lady of Perpetual Help Mission in Dugger in 1982