Diocese of Davenport

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The Diocese of Davenport () is a diocese of the Catholic Church for the southeastern quarter of the state of Iowa in the United States. The bishop is Dennis Gerard Walsh. The see city for the diocese is Davenport, where Sacred Heart Cathedral is located.

Territory The Diocese of Davenport covers the territory to the immediate west of the Mississippi River and borders on the Missouri state line on the south. It includes the following counties: Appanoose, Cedar, Clinton, Davis, Des Moines, Henry, Iowa, Jasper, Jefferson, Johnson, Keokuk, Lee, Louisa, Mahaska, Marion, Monroe, Muscatine, Poweshiek, Scott, Van Buren, Wapello and Washington

History

1800 to 1850

From the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 down to 1827, present-day Iowa was part of the Diocese of New Orleans. With the establishment of the Diocese of St. Louis in 1826, Iowa was transferred from New Orleans. The Society of Jesus began sending missionaries around the Mississippi Valley in the early 1830s. 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 the 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, the 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.Kempker, J.F. "Very Rev. J. A. M. Pelamourgues, Missionary priest and educator. Distinguished in the annals of the Roman Catholic Church of early Iowa" The Annals of Iowa, A Historical Quarterly. Vol. 6, 3rd series, Charles Aldrich, editor. (Des Moines: Historical Department of Iowa, 1903) 117 Pelamourgues studied to improve his English; when German immigrants began to arrive, he took up that language as well.

The first Catholic church in Burlington was St. Paul, built by Mazzuchell in 1840. In 1841, he constructed a small log church for St. Mary of the Assumption, the first parish in Iowa City.

1850 to 1900

In 1856, Pelamourgues helped establish the parish of St. Kunigunda in Davenport, where mass was celebrated in Latin and German. When the German pastor at St. Kunigunda refused to celebrate mass in English for Irish immigrants, Pelamourgues erected St. Mary's Parish for them two blocks away.

The Sisters of Charity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1859 opened the Immaculated Conception Academy, the first Catholic school for girls in Davenport.When John Hennessy was appointed bishop of Dubuque in 1866, he requested that the Vatican divide Iowa into two dioceses, with the new diocese covering the lower half of the state. The Vatican did not take any actions at that time.

The Sisters of Mercy arrived in Davenport in 1869 with plans to open a school. However, after seeing the conditions in the Scott County Poor Farm, they decided to open a hospital instead. Mercy Hospital opened in Davenport later that year. Today it is MercyOne Genesis Davenport Medical Center.In 1873, the sisters opened a second Mercy Hospital in Iowa City. Today it is University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center Downtown.

By the late 1870s, the Vatican was ready to establish a second diocese in Iowa. Hennessy suggested locating it 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 John McMullen, vicar general of the Archdiocese of Chicago, to serve as the first bishop of the new diocese. As bishop, McMullen chose St. Margaret's Church in Davenport as the new cathedral. Arriving in Davenport, he was greeted by a large crowd of Catholics and Protestants.

McMullen quickly embarked on a tour of 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. By December 1882, McMullen had confirmed over 13,000 people. After almost two years as bishop, McMullen died in 1883.

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 Sacred Heart Asylum in Davenport in 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.

In 1904, at Cosgrove's request, Pope Pius X named James J. Davis, vicar general and cathedral rector, as coadjutor bishop of the diocese to assist with its administration. Cosgrove presided over the diocese's second synod the same year. When Cosgrove died in 1906, Davis became bishop of Davenport. At this time, the Vatican started planning for a new diocese in Des Moines. Rather than splitting the Diocese of Davenport into two small dioceses, Davis proposed that Vatican redraw all the diocese boundaries in Iowa. The Archdiocese of Dubuque had 109,000 Catholics and the Diocese of Sioux City had 50,000 Catholics. He opposed the Vatican leaving their boundaries alone while splitting the Diocese of Davenport. Under the existing plan, Davenport would have 35,000 Catholics and Des Moines 25,000 Catholics.

In 1911, Pius X rejected Davis' request and erected the new Diocese of Des Moines from the Diocese of Davenport. However, Pius X did sever Clinton County from the archdiocese and gave it to the Diocese of Davenport. This change gave the diocese 50,000 Catholics out of a total population of 589,000.

As Davis' health declined he requested an auxiliary bishop to assist him. Edward Howard of the Dubuque archdiocese was appointed by Pope Pius XI on December 13, 1923. He was appointed Archbishop of Oregon City eight months prior to Davis' death. After Davis died in 1926, Pope Pius XI named Henry Rohlman as the fourth bishop of Davenport. In 1928, Rohlman commissioned a study to assess the social problems in the diocese. The result of this study was the establishment of Catholic Charities in 1929. Its immediate focus was the welfare of the children at St. Vincent's Home in Davenport.

1930 to 1966

The diocese celebrated its Golden Jubilee in 1931. The next year, Rohlman convoked the diocese's third synod to bring the diocese's regulations in line with the 1917 Code of Canon Law. The synod also set the salary for pastors at $1,000 per year, plus household expenses, and salaries for associate pastors and chaplains at $500. Catholic Charities set up their offices in the Kahl Building. They were joined in 1932 with the chancery and the newly established superintendent of schools. All of these offices and the bishop's office moved into a property on Church Square behind St. Anthony's Church downtown. It was renamed the Cosgrove Building after Cosgrove. The Catholic Messenger, an independent Catholic newspaper published in Davenport, was experiencing financial problems during the Great Depression of the 1930s; the diocese purchased it in 1937 to use as the diocesan newspaper.

Pope Pius XII named Rohlman as coadjutor archbishop of Dubuque in 1944 ; the pope replaced him in Davenport with Bishop Ralph Hayes, rector of the Pontifical North American College in Rome. Catholic school enrollment reached their highest enrollments during Hayes’ episcopate. Elementary school enrollment reached its highest mark in 1960 with 12,074 students and high schools in 1965 with 4,129 students. The National Catholic Welfare Council held a four-day conference in Davenport in 1949, focusing on the themes of industry, education, and rural life. Hayes established the Papal Volunteers of Latin America in the diocese in 1961 in response to a plea from Pope John XXIII. The diocese sent missionaries to Cuernavaca, Mexico and Ponce, Puerto Rico.

1966 to 1993

Hayes retired in 1966 after 22 years as bishop of Davenport. To replace him, Pope Paul VI named Auxiliary Bishop Gerald O'Keefe of the Archdiocese of St. Paul. O'Keefe established a sister's council for the members of women's religious orders in 1967 and a lay council in 1970. He created the first diocesan pastoral council and created a diocesan board of education. Procedures for due process were written in the late 1960s. In 1978, O'Keefe established the permanent diaconate in the diocese. The first class of deacons was ordained in 1980. A deacons council was also organized.

O’Keefe joined with Bishops Arthur O'Neil of Rockford and John Franz of Peoria to create an office that assisted migrant workers with job and education services. In 1972, the Social Action department established an Immigration Office. The diocese sent priests to Mexico to learn Spanish and to immerse themselves in its culture. Three Spanish-speaking deacons were ordained in 1981.

The economic recession of the 1980s impacted the diocesan population and resources. In 1991, O'Keefe announced a plan for clustering and closing smaller parishes, reflecting both the reduced number of priests and the lower diocese population. The diocese also witnessed a decline in enrollment in Catholic schools, leading to the merger or closing of schools. In 1970, there were ten hospitals in the diocese; by the time O'Keefe retired in 1993, they were reduced to three.

1993 to 2010

To replace O'Keefe, Pope John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop William Franklin of Dubuque as the next bishop of Davenport in 1993. Franklin established an Office of Pastoral Services that combined the ministries of liturgy, education, and social action. He replaced the pastoral council with a pastoral council convocation.

The Redemptorists, who had served the diocese for 89 years, left in 1997 due to their declining numbers. That same year, the Sisters of St. Francis in Clinton built the Canticle, a new motherhouse in Clinton.

In 2001, John Paul II bestowed papal honors on 26 people of the diocese. The pope named four priests as chaplains to his holiness, eight laymen as knights of St. Gregory the Great, and three women as dames of the Order of St. Gregory the Great Eleven men and women received the cross oro ecclesia et pontifice. The three female recipients were the first in the history of the diocese.Franklin in 2004 assembled a task force to examine the viability of parishes. He retired as bishop of Davenport in 2006.

In 2006, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Martin Amos of the Diocese of Cleveland as the eighth bishop of Davenport. Two days before Amos assumed office, the diocese filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy protection. Bankruptcy forced the diocese to sell off property, including the bishop's residence, to pay for a financial settlement to sexual abuse victims. Amos had previously requested a small fixer-upper house to live in, believing the bishop's residence too big for him.