Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Cloud

Central Minnesota went through several Catholic jurisdictions before the Vatican erected the Diocese of Saint Cloud:

• Diocese of Saint Louis (1826 to 1837)
• Diocese of Dubuque (1837 to 1850)
• Diocese of Saint Paul (1850 to 1875)
• Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Minnesota (1875 to 1889)[1]

The first mass in the St. Cloud area was offered by Reverend Francis de Vivaldi, a missionary to the Winnebago reservation in Long Prairie in 1851. The mass took place inside a log cabin, owned by James Keough.[2][3]Keough later recalled,

"The congregation present was made up of Irish and French Canadians. The altar was prepared by a half-breed (sic) lady, the wife of a Canadian Frenchman. I am the owner of the table used as an altar on that occasion. Some time after this Father Pierz came among us, and subsequently built the first Catholic church at Sauk Rapids."[4]

Bishop Joseph Crétin of Saint Paul sent Reverend Francis Pierz in 1852 to the Ojibwe Nation (Chippewa), giving him responsibility for an apostolate consisting of central and northern Minnesota with a large Native American congregation. Wanting to attract more European Catholics to the area, he wrote articles in German newspapers about the availability of good agricultural land. By 1855, large numbers of German, Slovene and Luxembourger settlers started arriving in the region.[5]In 1856, five monks of Saint Vincent Archabbey in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, arrived in St. Cloud to minister to the German settlers. They established Saint John's college in 1857 in Collegeville.[6]

Diocesan Pastoral Center

On February 12, 1875 Pope Pius IX established the Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Minnesota. The pope named Abbot Rupert Seidenbusch, leader of the Abbey of St. Louis on the Lake, as the vicar apostolic. His jurisdiction covered all of present-day Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota.

After his consecration, Seidenbusch traveled across the vicariate by buggy, wagon, and rail and continued to solicit donations from Europe.[7] He used Saint Mary's Church in St. Cloud as his temporary cathedral, administering confirmation for the first time there in 1875.[8] He performed his first ordinations of seminarians at Saint John's College in 1876.[8] Seidenbusch oversaw the completion of Holy Angels Cathedral in 1884.[8] During his term, the Vatican removed the Dakotas and erected the Diocese of Duluth from the vicariate. Seidenbusch retired due to poor health in 1888.

On September 22, 1888 Pope Leo XIII suppressed the vicariate to erect the Diocese of Saint Cloud.[9][10] The pope named Monsignor John Zardetti, general vicar of the Vicariate of Dakota, as the first bishop of Saint Cloud. Zardetti immediately started construction of the diocesan cathedral. He worked to enlarge the parochial school system and created a newspaper for the diocese.[11] The Benedictine brothers opened St. Benedict's Academy in 1889, which became St. Benedict's College in 1913.[12]

Suffering from the cold climate, the Vatican allowed Zardetti in 1894 to resign as bishop and return to Rome to serve in the Roman Curia.

Leo XIII appointed Bishop Martin Marty of the Diocese of Sioux Falls as the second bishop of Saint Cloud in 1895. Already ill, Marty died less than two years later in 1896. To replace Marty, the same pope named Reverend James Trobec of St. Paul. Trobec led the diocese through a time of growth, with a particular focus on priestly vocations and Catholic education.[13] By 1911, the Catholic population of the diocese had grown by 25,000, the number of priests and parishes had each increased by 35, and the diocese had two new hospitals.[14]

After Trobec retired in 1914, Pope Benedict XV named Bishop Joseph Busch of the Diocese of Lead as the next bishop of Saint Cloud.[15] In 1941, Pope Pius XII appointed Reverend Peter Bartholome as coadjutor bishop of the diocese to assist Busch.[16]

After 38 years as bishop, Busch died in 1953. Bartholome automatically succeeded him as the next bishop of Saint Cloud.[16] In 1966, Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop George Speltz from the Diocese of Winona as coadjutor bishop for Bartholome. When Bartholome retired in 1971, Speltz took his place.[17] In 1984, Speltz refused to allow Catholic weddings to couples who co-habitated before marriage.[18] Speltz retired in 1987 due to poor health.

Pope John Paul II named Reverend Jerome Hanus, abbot of Conception Abbey in Conception, Missouri, as the next bishop of Saint Cloud in 1987. In 1994, Hanus became the coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Dubuque.[19] The pope in 1995 appointed Bishop John Kinney of the Diocese of Bismarck to replace Hanus in Saint Cloud. Kinney retired in 1913.

Pope Francis named Bishop Donald Kettler of the Diocese of Fairbanks as bishop of Saint Cloud in 2013. He retired in 2022.[20]

The current bishop of Saint Cloud is Patrick Neary, named by Francis in 2023.

Police in late 2007 received a complaint from an 18 year old man that he had been receiving anonymous obscene and suggestive letters. The letters were traced to Reverend John Lloyd Caskey from Morris. When police searched Caskey's residence, they discovered 8.600 images of child pornography on his personal computer. He was arrested in February 2008 on charges of possessing child pornography. Bishop Kinney, reading about Caskey's arrest in a newspaper, immediately suspended him from ministry.[21] Caskey pleaded guilty and was sentenced in May 2009 to one month in jail and five years probation.[22]

The Minnesota Legislature in 2013 passed the Minnesota Child Victims Act of 2013. This act lifted the previous civil statute of limitations for child abuse sexual allegations until 2016.[23] This act allowed individuals to file lawsuits on old sexual abuse claims. In 2015, two women sued the diocese, claiming that they had been sexually abused by Reverend Donald Rieder from Randall when they were ages 11 to 15 in the 1960s.[24] Rieder was convicted in 2003 of sexual abuse of a minor and spent one year in prison.[25]

In 2016, the diocese turned over 13,500 documents related to sexual abuse allegations against its priests to law enforcement.[26] In March 2018, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy.[23] In August 2018, the diocese announced its cooperation with a proposed grand jury investigation to disclose names of accused priests.[26]

In May 2020, the bankruptcy court agreed to the diocese bankruptcy plan that included a $22.5 million settlement plan for 70 sex abuse survivors.[27] The same day, Bishop Kettler apologized to the sex abuse survivors for the harm they suffered. He said that he remained committed to "assist in the healing of all those who have been hurt."[27] In 2022, the diocese published an update list of diocesan clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.[28]

Rupert Seidenbusch (1875–1888)

• John Joseph Frederick Otto Zardetti (1889–1894), appointed Archbishop of Bucharest
• Martin Marty (1895–1896)
• James Trobec (1897–1914)
• Joseph Francis Busch (1915–1953)
• Peter William Bartholome (1953–1968)
• George Henry Speltz (1968–1987)
• Jerome George Hanus (1987–1994), appointed Coadjutor Archbishop and later Archbishop of Dubuque
• John Francis Kinney (1995–2013)
• Donald Joseph Kettler (2013 – 2022)
• Patrick Neary (2023–present)

• Peter William Bartholome (1941–1953)
• George Henry Speltz (1966–1968)

James Steven Rausch (1973–1977), appointed Bishop of Phoenix

• Henry Joseph Soenneker, Bishop of Owensboro (1961–1982)
• Harold Joseph Dimmerling, Bishop of Rapid City (1969–1987)

• College of St. Benedict in St. Joseph (for women)
• Saint John’s School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville (the school of theology is coed)
• Saint John’s University in Collegeville (for men)

• Cathedral High School – St. Cloud
• Saint John's Preparatory School – Collegeville