The Diocese of Lincoln (Latin: Dioecesis Lincolnensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in Nebraska, United States, and comprises the majority of the eastern and central portions of the state south of the Platte River. It is a suffragan see to the archdiocese of Omaha. The episcopal see is in Lincoln, Nebraska.
The diocese was established in 1887, following the arrival of many Irish, German and Czech Catholic immigrants to the region. Bishop James D. Conley has been bishop there since 2012. The Cathedral of the Risen Christ is the cathedral parish of the diocese.
== History ==
=== 1800 to 1862 ===
The first Catholic missionary to visit Nebraska was Pierre-Jean De Smet, who crossed the Missouri River into Nebraska to baptize two infants of the Otoe people near present-day Bellevue in 1838. At that time, the area was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of St. Louis. DeSmet later traveled along the Platte River to a council of the tribes.
Pope Pius IX in 1850 erected the Vicariate Apostolic of Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains. This huge jurisdiction contained the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana. Pius IX named John Miège from St. Louis as the vicar apostolic. Four years later, in 1854, the US Congress created the Nebraska Territory, a vast area covering six future states.
The first Catholic parish in the Lincoln area was St. Benedict's, erected in 1856. It is the oldest parish in Nebraska. In 1857, Pius IX suppressed the Vicariate of the Indian Territory, creating instead the Vicariate Apostolic of Kansas, which included all of Nebraska.Pius IX appointed Miège as vicar of the new vicariate.
=== 1862 to 1887 ===
In 1862, Pastor Emmanuel Hartig dedicated St. Benedict's Church in Nebraska City, the oldest standing church in the state. During the American Civil War, Irish Catholic workers moved to Nebraska to transport goods for the war effort. They later built the Union Pacific railroad through the area. Nebraska was admitted as a state in 1867.
By the 1870s, large numbers of German and Czech Catholic immigrants were settling on farms in the region. The second apostolic vicar of Nebraska was James O'Connor, named by Pius IX in 1876. On August 2, 1885, the Vatican elevated the Apostolic Vicariate of Nebraska to the Diocese of Omaha.
=== 1887 to 1900 ===
The Diocese of Lincoln was established on August 2, 1887, by Pope Leo XIII with territory taken from the Diocese of Omaha. He appointed Thomas Bonacum of St. Louis as the first bishop of Lincoln.
When Bonacum became bishop in 1888, the diocese had a Catholic population of 23,000 with 32 priests, 29 parishes, and three parochial schools. In 1888, Bonacum sued Patrick Egan, a prominent Lincoln citizen, for failing to pay a money pledge for St. Teresa's Pro-Cathedral. The case went to the Nebraska Supreme Court, which ordered Egan to pay the pledge.In 1889, the Sisters of St. Francis of Perpetual Adoration opened St. Elizabeth Hospital in Lincoln. It is today CHI Health St. Elizabeth.
In 1891, Bonacum brought the priest Martin Corbett of Palmyra before a diocesan court of five other priests. Bonacum and Corbett had undergone a series of disputes, leading to the court battle. The court dismissed the charges against Corbett. Bonacum then tried to force Corbett to resign his position in 1894. Corbett refused and later sued Bonacum in civil court for libel. The case was dismissed. Bonacum became the first Catholic bishop in the United States to be sued in civil court.
=== 1900 to 1957 ===
By the time of Bonacum's death in 1911, the diocese had a Catholic population of 37,000 with 84 priests, 135 churches and 65 with resident pastors, and 28 parochial schools. Later that year, John Tihen of St. Louis was appointed the second bishop of Lincoln. In December 2011, Tihen consecrated the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Immaculate Conception in LincolnTihen was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Denver in 1917.
Bishop Charles O'Reilly from the Diocese of Baker City was named the third bishop of Lincoln in 1918 by Pope Benedict XV. Early into his tenure at Lincoln, O'Reilly had to contend with the 1918 influenza pandemic, which claimed the lives of many priests and religious sisters in the diocese. He traveled to Rome in 1921 to recruit more priests, especially for the large Czech-speaking population in the diocese. During his five years as bishop, he established six new parochial schools and three new parishes.
After O'Reilly died in 1923, Pope Pius XI named Francis Beckman of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as his replacement. In 1930, Beckman was named archbishop of the Archdiocese of Dubuque. His successor in Lincoln was Louis Kucera of Dubuque. Kucera served as bishop for 27 years until his death in 1957. Auxiliary Bishop James Casey of Lincoln succeeded Kucera that same year.
=== 1957 to 2000 ===
Casey built a chancery building in 1961 and the Our Lady of Good Counsel Retreat House in Waverly in 1963. He also constructed the Villa Marie School in Lincoln for special needs children, several high schools and grade schools, and a Newman Center. The most prominent development was the erection of the Cathedral of the Risen Christ in Lincoln; Casey broke ground on the new cathedral in June 1963 and dedicated it in August 1965. The Southern Nebraska Register declared that Casey "accomplished more for the Diocese of Lincoln in 10 years than any other comparable period in our history."
Casey was appointed archbishop of the Archdiocese of Denver in 1967; Auxiliary Bishop Glennon Flavin of St. Louis replaced him in Lincoln. Flavin founded the School Sisters of Christ the King in 1976. In 1981, Flavin prohibited women from serving as lectors during mass; in response, Archbishop Rembert Weakland called his actions "a step backward and offensive." Flavin retired in 1992 after 24 years as bishop of Lincoln.
To replace Flavin, Pope John Paul II selected Fabian Bruskewitz of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee in 1992. In 1996, Bruskewitz issued a statement forbidding Catholics in the diocese to join a number of organizations, including the Society of St. Pius X, Call to Action, Planned Parenthood, Catholics for a Free Choice, the Hemlock Society, and various Masonic groups, under pain of excommunication.
In 1996, Bishop Fabian Bruskewitz established a task force to examine the idea of creating a seminary in the diocese. In 1998, St. Gregory the Great Seminary was opened in Seward.
=== 2000 to present ===
In 2006, Bruskewitz rejected the proposed undertaking of an audit by the National Review Board of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The audit would have examined whether the diocese had effectively implemented national guidelines on sexual abuse programs. Bruskewitz retired as bishop of Lincoln in 2010. James D. Conley, formerly an auxiliary bishop from the Archdiocese of Denver, was appointed bishop by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.
In June 2014, the chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) National Review Board for the Protection of Children reported that the Diocese of Lincoln was one of four American dioceses not in audit compliance. According to a 2015 statement by Conley, the diocese had complied with all church and civil laws on child abuse reporting and child protection; he stated that the audit process had been improved, and that the diocese would now participate in the USCCB audit.
In 2016, Conley gave permission for lay married men to enter the permanent diaconate in cooperation with the Archdiocese of Omaha's diaconate program. In early 2019, Conley reiterated diocesan policy of only allowing male altar servers, making it one of two dioceses in the country with that restriction.
In December 2019, Conley announced that he was taking a medical leave of absence to treat depression, anxiety, insomnia, and tinnitus. Archbishop George Joseph Lucas was appointed to serve as apostolic administrator during Conley's leave of absence. Conley returned to active service in November 2020. In 2021, Matthew Hecker became the first permanent deacon to be ordained for the diocese.
The University of Nebraska, Lincoln, in August 2025 apologized for a drag performance on campus that contains elements of the Catholic mass. Conley condemned the event, calling it “a blatant public display of faith-based discrimination".Conley in May 2026 announced that the diocese was opening Mater Filius, a maternity home in Lincoln for pregnant women in need of support.
=== Sex Abuse ===
In 2021, Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson published a report on sexual abuse by priests in Nebraska. It highlighted several instances in which Bishop Bruskewitz failed to follow canon law in handling allegations:
John Copenhaver, a diocesan priest, was accused in the early 1990s and 2001 of inappropriate behavior with a minor, but Bruskewitz did not suspend him or investigate the claim. In 2002, after another incident, Bruskewitz ordered the priest to undergo counseling, but he remained in his parish position. In 2021, Bruskewitz told Copenhaver to retire.
The priest James Benton was accused in 1997 of sexually touching a minor in the 1980s. The diocese did not investigate Benton, even after the victim met with Bruskewitz in 2002. The diocese allowed Benton to hold pastoral assignments until another allegation was made against him in 2017.
Thomas Dunavan, a diocesan priest, was accused in 2001 by an 18-year-old woman of sexually groping her. She said that the diocese coerced her to recant her initial allegation two weeks later. The woman subsequently filed a sexual assault complaint against the priest with the local police. The diocese never investigated her claims.
Robert Hrdlicka, a priest in the diocese, "sexually abused numerous victims while serving in the diocese and as a chaplain in the United States Navy" in the 1980s and 90s, according to Peterson's report. The father of one of the victims met with Monsignor Crowley, who transferred Hrdlicka to another parish. Unbeknownst to the victim's father, Crowley himself was a serial abuser, according to the report. Hrdlicka was convicted of abuse in a Navy court martial in 1993 and sentenced to 12 years in military prison. The diocese denied the abuse in 2002, saying that "there was no record of any complaints against Hrdlicka in the diocese." However, Peterson found that the abuse was in fact reported to Bishop Glennon Patrick Flavin starting in 1978.
In 1998, Bruskewitz met with Leonard Kalin, the vocations director at the Newman Center at the University of Nebraska. The diocese had been receiving complaints of sexual harassment and assault by Kalin from seminarians and undergraduates at the university. In the meeting, the priest admitted having had 50 sexual encounters with other males. In response, Bruskewitz banned Kalin from dealing with anyone under age 40, but did not report him to authorities or suspend his ministerial privileges. A later note in Kalin's diocesan personal file stated that Kalin was not following the ban.
In October 2021, the diocese published a list of diocesan clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. The list included Copenhaver and Benton.
Of 195 American bishops in 2003, Bruskewitz was the only one who refused to sign an official policy intended to prevent sexual abuse of children, called the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. He attributed sexual abuse by his priests to "homosexual perversion" and the consequences of society rejecting traditional Catholic teaching about marriage and birth control.
== Coat of arms ==
== Bishops ==
=== Bishops of Lincoln ===
Thomas Bonacum (1887-1911)
John Henry Tihen (1911-1917), appointed Bishop of Denver
Charles Joseph O'Reilly (1918-1923)
Francis Beckman (1924-1930), appointed Archbishop of Dubuque
Louis Benedict Kucera (1930-1957)
James Vincent Casey (1957-1967), formerly auxiliary bishop, appointed Archbishop of Denver
Glennon Patrick Flavin (1967-1992)
Fabian Bruskewitz (1992-2012)
James D. Conley (2012–present)
=== Diocesan priests who became bishops elsewhere ===
Robert F. Vasa, appointed Bishop of Baker in 1999 and later Bishop of Santa Rosa in California
Thomas Olmsted, appointed Coadjutor Bishop (in 1999) and later Bishop of Wichita and Bishop of Phoenix
Michael Owen Jackels, appointed Bishop of Wichita in 2005 and later Archbishop of Dubuque
John Folda, appointed Bishop of Fargo in 2013
== Schools ==
As of 2025, the Diocese of Lincoln was operating 27 schools with an approximate enrollment of 7600 students.
=== Secondary Schools ===
Aquinas Catholic Middle and High School, David City
Bishop Neumann Jr/Sr High School, Wahoo
Hastings Catholic Schools, Hastings
Lourdes Central Catholic, Nebraska City
Pius X Catholic High School, Lincoln
Sacred Heart School, Falls City (K through 12)
=== Seminary ===
St. Gregory the Great Seminary, Seward
Our Lady of Guadalupe Seminary, Denton
== References ==
== External links ==
Diocesan website