Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock

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Basic information
Diocese of Little Rock
Dioecesis Petriculana
The coat of arms of the Diocese of Little Rock
Location	Little Rock, Arkansas, United States
Territory	Arkansas
Population	116,605
Rite	Roman Rite
Ecclesiastical province	Archdiocese of Oklahoma City
Established	28 November 1843
Cathedral	Cathedral of St. Andrew
Bishop	Bishop of Little Rock
Website	www.dolr.org
Current leadership
Pope	Benedict XVI
Metropolitan	Eusebius J. Beltran Archbishop of Oklahoma City
Diocesan Bishop	Anthony Taylor

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Little Rock (Latin: Dioecesis Petriculana) is a Roman Catholic diocese in Arkansas. It was founded on November 28, [[1

1 Bishops of Little Rock
2 Excommunication
3 History
4 High Schools
5 External links
6 References

[edit] Bishops of Little Rock

Andrew Byrne (1843 - 1862)
Edward Fitzgerald (1866–1907)
John Baptist Morris (1907–1946)
Albert Lewis Fletcher (1946–1972)
Andrew Joseph McDonald (1972–2000)
James Peter Sartain (2000–2006)
Anthony Taylor (2008–present)

[edit] Excommunication

On September 28, 2007, Msgr. J. Gaston Hebert, the diocese administrator (per the July 11 Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith) stated that 6 Arkansas nuns were excommunicated for heresy (the first in the diocese's 165-year history). They refused to recant the doctrines of the Community of the Lady of All Nations (Army of Mary). They 6 nuns are members of the Good Shepherd Monastery of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge in Hot Springs. Sister Mary Theresa Dionne, 82, one of 6, said they will still live at the convent property, which they own. The sect believe that its 86-year-old founder, Marie Paule Giguere, is the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary.^[1]

[edit] History

A dozen Catholic priests accompanied Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto down the Mississippi River in 1541 to a Quapaw Indian village near present-day Helena-West Helena, where they lifted a cross and sang praise to God. This marked the first Christian ceremony within the future boundaries of Arkansas.

In 1682, French explorer Rene-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle claimed the territory for a Catholic king, Louis XIV of France. A La Salle lieutenant, Italian-born Henri de Tonti, established Arkansas Post at the mouth of the Arkansas River but scrapped plans for a Jesuit chapel and mission house after battles with the Indians.

Father Jacques Gravier, a Jesuit priest, celebrated the first Catholic Mass in a Quapaw village on Nov. 1, 1700. Bernard de la Harpe took an exploratory trip up the Arkansas River in search of gold and silver in 1722, and rumors of wealth brought French and German emigrants a year later. The land swung back and forth between French and Spanish rule as ecclesiastical progress waxed and waned.

After the United States acquired the Arkansas territory in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, newcomers arrived from Europe, Africa and older Southern states. Most were Protestant. Father Ennemond Dupuy, who built the first Catholic Church near present-day Pine Bluff in 1834, was the only priest living in Arkansas upon statehood in 1836. In 1838, the Sisters of Loretto opened the first Catholic school along the Arkansas River, downstream from Pine Bluff. Five years later, Rome turned its eye to Arkansas.

Pope Gregory XVI established the Diocese of Little Rock on Nov. 28, 1843. His appointed bishop, Andrew J. Byrne, was consecrated March 10, 1844, in New York and rode into Little Rock on horseback June 4. The Irish-born bishop found a scattered Catholic population of possibly 700. cathedral

The first Cathedral of St. Andrew, at 2nd and Center streets in Little Rock, was consecrated in November 1846.

Bishop Byrne established the College of St. Andrew in Fort Smith in 1849 and envisioned a colony of Irish immigrants in the west Arkansas city, even traveling to his home country to recruit Catholic families. Though that dream was never realized, the bishop persuaded an Irish order of nuns, the Sisters of Mercy, to come to Little Rock, where they founded Mount St. Mary Academy in 1851.

The bishop battled a wave of anti-Catholic sentiment fueled by the Know Nothings, a quasi-political party. The church in Helena was burned in 1854. As the country edged closer to Civil War, soldiers occupied diocesan property in Fort Smith. Bishop Byrne died June 10, 1862, in Helena. Arkansas remained without a bishop for nearly five years.

Edward M. Fitzgerald, another Irishman, came to Arkansas by steamboat after his consecration as the second bishop of Little Rock on Feb. 3, 1867, in Columbus, Ohio. At age 33, the nation’s youngest prelate rebuilt churches and mission stations damaged by the Civil War.

While in Rome for the First Vatican Council of 1869-1870, Bishop Fitzgerald publicly opposed the doctrine of papal infallibility, which states the pope is always correct when he speaks ex cathedra on church doctrine. The young bishop explained that to vote otherwise would have hampered evangelization efforts in Arkansas, where there were fewer than 2,000 Catholics. fitzgerald

Bishop Fitzgerald

The cornerstone for the Cathedral of St. Andrew was set July 7, 1778, at Seventh and Louisiana in Little Rock. An English gothic structure arose as the first building constructed of Arkansas granite, hauled in from the Fourche Mountains. The Cathedral was consecrated on the first Sunday of Advent in November 1881.

In 1884, Bishop Fitzgerald attended the Third Plenary Council in Baltimore, where he heard the call for U.S. bishops to build a Catholic school in every parish. This proved a daunting task for a poor rural diocese, yet Bishop Fitzgerald, at his Silver Jubilee in 1892, could point to 31 schools and 58 churches either built or under construction. The Catholic population approached 10,000, with 32 priests.

Much progress owed to the bishop’s business acumen. He worked with the Little Rock and Fort Smith Railroad Company to award land to settlers from Germany, Italy, Poland and Switzerland. The railroad donated 640 acres in Logan County to the Benedictine fathers who built St. Benedict’s Priory, now Subiaco Abbey.

Religious orders opened four hospitals around the turn of the century. In 1888, the Sisters of Charity founded Charity Hospital (now St. Vincent Infirmary Medical Center) in Little Rock and the Sisters of Mercy opened St. Joseph’s Hospital in Hot Springs. The Olivetan Benedictine Sisters established St. Bernard’s Hospital in Jonesboro in 1900, amid a yellow fever epidemic. In 1905, the Sisters of Mercy named their new Fort Smith hospital St. Edward’s to honor Bishop Fitzgerald, who lay paralyzed by a stroke. The bishop died Feb. 21, 1907, in Hot Springs.

The third bishop of Little Rock, John B. Morris of Tennessee, had been appointed diocesan coadjutor in 1906 and took office immediately upon the death of Bishop Fitzgerald. He continued mission work among black Arkansans, establishing black Catholic parishes in Little Rock, North Little Rock, El Dorado, Fort Smith, Helena, Hot Springs and Lake Village. morris and fletcher

Bishop Morris and a young Father Fletcher

Bishop Morris extended diocesan support to the discarded and disadvantaged. He founded St. Joseph’s Orphanage near North Little Rock, entrusting the children to Benedictine sisters; the Morris School for Boys near present-day Searcy, under the tutelage of Franciscan brothers; and St. Michael’s in Hot Springs, a school for wayward girls run by the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge.

What would become St. John Home Missions Seminary opened in 1911 as a wing of the Little Rock College for Boys. In its first 12 years, the seminary trained 45 priests, including 38 for its home diocese. This led to a system of assigning newly ordained priests as assistant pastors of established parishes, which brought in mission stations as satellite churches.

Catholic High School for Boys opened in 1930 on the grounds of Little Rock College, which had closed the year before. By 1940, more than 33,000 Catholics attended 125 churches in Arkansas. The state’s 141 priests included 59 native-born. One, Albert L. Fletcher, was appointed auxiliary bishop in 1940. Bishop Morris died Oct. 22, 1946, in Little Rock.

The first Arkansan raised to the Catholic Church hierarchy, Bishop Fletcher became the fourth bishop of Little Rock on Feb. 11, 1947. His quarter century of service spanned canonical and social change that shook the Church and the world.

The civil rights movement led to the closing of most black Catholic churches in Arkansas over a 12-year period, beginning in 1954 when the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed segregated schools. After the Arkansas National Guard blocked nine black students from entering Little Rock Central High School in 1957, Bishop Fletcher wrote in the diocesan newspaper that it was wrong to interfere with peaceful integration. By 1962, Catholic High and Mount St. Mary began enrolling black students. fletcher

Bishop Fletcher

From 1962 through 1965, Bishop Fletcher attended fall sessions of the Second Vatican Council. For Arkansas Catholics, the most noticeable change arising from Vatican II happened the first Sunday of Advent in 1964 when the priest faced the people to celebrate Mass in English.

In the latter part of the 1960s, Bishop Fletcher split with young priests teaching at St. John’s seminary on social and theological questions, including birth control and papal infallibility. After a seminary priest wrote a series of newspaper articles critical of Catholic doctrine, the seminary closed in 1967.

The Vietnam War proved as divisive for the church as it did for the nation. Bishop Fletcher declined to vote with most U.S. bishops in their resolution calling for an end to the war and, later, he opposed amnesty for draft evaders. In July 1972, the Vatican accepted the resignation of Bishop Fletcher, who had reached the mandatory retirement age of 75. He died Dec. 6, 1979, in Little Rock.

Andrew J. McDonald of Savannah, Ga., became the fifth bishop of Little Rock on Sept. 5, 1972. Three months later, the church in Arkansas, home to more than 55,000 Catholics, was reassigned from New Orleans (where it had been part of the Southern province since 1850) to the archbishopric of Oklahoma City.

Social action defined Bishop McDonald’s tenure. The former seminary, renamed St. John Catholic Center, became the hub of the diocese. Church offices emerged to serve a rapidly growing Hispanic population and to welcome political refugees from Vietnam, Cuba and Central and South America. The diocesan Office of Justice and Peace championed fair treatment at home for people lacking food, adequate housing and other necessities while joining an international push for nuclear disarmament. Bishop McDonald endorsed amnesty for Vietnam-era draft evaders in 1974. mcdonald

Bishop McDonald talks with Mother Teresa of Calcutta at a rally at Ray Winder Field in Little Rock, June 2, 1982.

The U.S. Supreme Court decision released Jan. 22, 1973, legalizing abortion triggered an immediate protest from Bishop McDonald in words and action. The annual March for Life processes down Capitol Avenue in Little Rock each January to advocate for the rights of the unborn. Mother Teresa of Calcutta opened a home for unwed mothers in Little Rock in 1982.

An active laity found purpose in myriad programs. A local couple developed the now widely distributed Little Rock Scripture Study program to deepen an appreciation and understanding of the Bible. RENEW helped unify parishes through small-group sharing. Cursillo weekends strengthened friendships in a spirit of community. Couples participated in Pre-Cana programs to prepare for marriage, Marriage Encounter retreats to strengthen relationships and Retrovaille sessions to heal them.

Bishop McDonald, a strong advocate of ecumenism, joined interfaith efforts to further humanitarian causes. By 1993, the Catholic population exceeded 75,000, but the decrease in vocations to the priesthood and religious life had accelerated. Bishop McDonald, as required by age, submitted his resignation in 1998 and formally retired Jan. 4, 2000.

A crowd of 2,600 saw J. Peter Sartain of Memphis installed as the sixth bishop of Little Rock on March 6, 2000. Under his leadership, the Church intensified its Hispanic ministry. The bishop took Spanish lessons, dedicated Hispanic-led parishes in southwest Arkansas, led an eight-day pilgrimage to Mexico in 2004 and joined U.S. bishops in calling for immigration reform based on human dignity. Bishop Sartain also pushed for more priestly vocations. In 2005 he led 5,000 Catholics in a daylong Eucharistic Congress in Little Rock. sartain

Bishop Sartain dedicates St. Andrew Church in Danville Jan. 15, 2006.

A gifted writer and powerful speaker, Bishop Sartain held national offices within the U.S. Conference of Bishops. His appointment May 16, 2006, as bishop of Joilet, though sudden, was not surprising. The Catholic population of Arkansas approaches 113,000, with much of the growth in western sections where Mexican-born laborers work in poultry plants. Elsewhere, a lack of students forced the closing of four Catholic elementary schools from 2001 to 2007, in Blytheville, El Dorado, Hot Springs and Little Rock.

Msgr. J. Gaston Hebert was appointed administrator June 29, 2006, of a diocese left sede vacante, without a bishop. Since that time, the diocese has enjoyed an increase in seminarians, particularly ones from other countries. Of the diocese’s 22 men studying for the priesthood in 2007, nearly half represent other cultures, including Mexico, Argentina, El Salvador, the Dominican Republic, Nigeria and Vietnam.

In October 2007, for the first time in the diocese’s history, a formal declaration of excommunication was issued by the Catholic Church for six nuns in Hot Springs. The Monastery of Our Lady of Charity and Refuge sisters received the penalty for their continued involvement in the Community of the Lady of All Nations, also known as the Army of Mary. It is a schismatic association based in Quebec, Canada.

Pope Benedict XVI named Father Anthony B. Taylor, of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, the seventh bishop of the diocese on April 10, 2008. Bishop-elect Taylor, 54, will be installed and ordained on June 5, 2008 at the Statehouse Convention Center in Little Rock.