The Diocese of Salt Lake City (Latin: Diœcesis Civitatis Lacus Salsi) is a diocese of the Catholic Church for the State of Utah in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas. The mother church is the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City. Oscar Azarcon Solis is the bishop.
== History ==
=== 1776 to 1878 ===
The earliest Catholic presence in Utah was the 1776 expedition of Francisco Atanazio Dominguez and Silvestre de Escalante from Santa Fe, New Mexico, to California. They were the first Europeans to enter present-day Utah. In 1859, Bonaventure Keller celebrated the first mass in the Utah Territory, for US Army soldiers at Camp Floyd. Edward Kelly purchased the first church property in Salt Lake City in 1866.
The first Catholic parish and church were established in 1871 by Patrick Walsh in Salt Lake City. In 1873, Archbishop Joseph Alemany of the Archdiocese of San Francisco sent Lawrence Scanlan to Utah to manage what was then the largest Catholic parish geographically in the country.
Scanlan worked as a circuit rider, visiting the 800 Catholic soldiers, immigrant miners, and railroad workers in the Utah Territory. In 1875, he invited the Sisters of the Holy Cross to Utah, where they founded St. Mary's Academy and Holy Cross Hospital in Salt Lake City. Scanlan purchased property in Ogden in 1875 for Saint Joseph's church, which was dedicated in 1877.
=== 1878 to 1891 ===
In 1878, Scanlan was named vicar forane by Alemany, making him the superior of the six Catholic priests in the territory. As a Catholic missionary in an area dominated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), Scanlan maintained a cordial relationship with the LDS community. In 1879, he was invited by LDS leader John Macfarlane to use the St. George Tabernacle in St. George to celebrate a mass accompanied by the tabernacle choir. Scanlan established St. John's Parish in Silver Reef, a mining town, that same year. St. Mary's Church was constructed in Park City, then a mining town, in 1881.
In September 1886, Scanlan opened All Hallows College at Salt Lake City. He served as a faculty member and lived at the college from 1887 to 1889.
In 1887, Pope Leo XIII erected the Apostolic Vicariate of Utah and Eastern Nevada, taking its territory from the Archdiocese of San Francisco. The pope appointed Scanlan as the apostolic vicar. In 1889, the Marist Fathers assumed control of All Hallows College, operating it until its closure in 1918.
=== 1891 to 1926 ===
On January 27, 1891, Leo XIII suppressed the vicariate and replaced it with the new Diocese of Salt Lake, keeping Scanlan as bishop. That same year, Scanlan broke ground for the new cathedral in 1899. He also opened St. Francis of Assisi church in Provo, the first Catholic church in Utah County. Scanlan established an official newspaper, The Intermountain Catholic, in 1899. He started missions and parishes throughout the new State of Utah. The Cathedral of St Mary Magdalene opened in 1909. Scanlan died in 1915.
The second bishop of Salt Lake was Joseph Glass of the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles, named by Pope Benedict XV in 1915. Glass renamed the Cathedral of Mary Magdalene as the Cathedral of the Madeleine. He also added distinctly Catholic murals to the building exterior. Some observers said that Glass added the images to confront LDS followers, but others said he simply "wanted to teach Utah Catholics the basic tenets of their faith." Glass died in 1926.
=== 1926 to 1980 ===
In 1926, John Mitty from the Archdiocese of New York was appointed the third bishop of Salt Lake City by Pope Pius XI. Mitty inherited a diocese deeply in debt. Glass had borrowed money to pay the interest on previous debt, and left the diocese owing over $300,000. In 1931, the Vatican transferred the seven counties in eastern Nevada from the Diocese of Salt Lake to the new Diocese of Reno. To reduce the diocesan debt, Mitty focused on improving the weekly offertory collection. When he left in 1932, the diocese was beginning to pay off its debts, and his successor was able to finish paying them off in 1936.
After Pius XI in 1932 named Mitty as coadjutor archbishop of San Francisco, the pope appointed James E. Kearney of New York to replace him in Salt Lake. In 1937, Kearney became bishop of the Diocese of Rochester. Duane Hunt of Salt Lake replaced Kearney. During his tenure, Hunt helped establish fifteen parishes throughout the state. He also invited such religious institutes as the Carmelites, the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, and the Trappists to serve in Utah. In 1951, the Vatican renamed the Diocese of Salt Lake as the Diocese of Salt Lake City. Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Federal was named coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake City in 1958 by Pope John XXIII.
When Hunt died in 1960, Federal succeeded him as bishop. During Federal's tenure, crews replaced the slate roof of the Cathedral of the Madeleine with copper along with some sandstone blocks and gargoyles. In 1970, he ordered the tolling of the cathedral bells when the hearse carrying the body of LDS President David O. McKay passed by. After 20 years as bishop of Salt Lake City, Federal retired in 1980.
=== 1980 to present ===
The next bishop of Salt Lake City was William Weigand of the Diocese of Boise, named by Pope John Paul II in 1980. In 1990, Weigand created one of the strongest sexual abuse policies then in effect in the United States. Weigand led a $9.7 million restoration of the Cathedral of the Madeleine in Salt Lake City from 1991 to 1993. In 1993, Weigand became bishop of the Diocese of Sacramento.
To replace Weigand, John Paul II named George Niederauer as the next bishop of Salt Lake City in 1994. He became archbishop of San Francisco in 2005. Pope Benedict XVI replaced him in Salt Lake City with Auxiliary Bishop John Wester of San Francisco in 2007. Wester served in Salt Lake City until his appointment as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 2015.
As of 2023, the bishop of the Diocese of Salt Lake city is Oscar Solis, formerly an auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles. He was appointed by Pope Francis in 2017. In August 2018, Andrezej Skrzypiec was charged with patronizing a prostitute, a class-A misdemeanor, after being arrested in a police sting operation in Salt Lake City. The diocese suspended him after his arrest.
== Catholic Community Services of Utah ==
Catholic Community Services (CCS) is a ministry of the diocese that operates various programs in Salt Lake City and Ogden designed to provide help and create hope for those impacted by homelessness as food insecurity. CCS' Migration and Refugee Services department also equips and empowers immigrants and refugees settling into the life in the United States. It is a member of the National organization Catholic Charities. Its Main Office is located at 224 North 2200 West Salt Lake City. CCS was established in 1945 when Most Rev. Duane G. Hunt of the diocese recognized the need for an organized effort to assist the poor. He established a local branch of the Catholic Charities. A tiny office was opened on the upper floor of the red brick house next to the Cathedral of the Madeleine. Msgr. Joseph P. Moreton, the first Executive Director, implemented various programs including: adoption, foster care, family counseling, supplementary aid and transient relief. CCS has expanded to include four sites that deliver basic social services to those in need along the Wasatch Front and Northern Utah over the last 75 years.
== Coat of arms ==
== Bishops ==
=== Apostolic Vicar of Salt Lake ===
Lawrence Scanlan (1887 – 1915)
=== Bishops of Salt Lake ===
Lawrence Scanlan (1887 – 1915)
Joseph Sarsfield Glass (1915 – 1926)
John Joseph Mitty (1926 – 1932), appointed Coadjutor Archbishop and later Archbishop of San Francisco
James Edward Kearney (1932 – 1937), appointed Bishop of Rochester
Duane Garrison Hunt (1937 – 1960)
=== Bishops of Salt Lake City ===
Duane Garrison Hunt (1937 – 1960)
Joseph Lennox Federal (1960 – 1980)
William Kenneth Weigand (1980 – 1993), appointed Bishop of Sacramento
George Hugh Niederauer (1994 – 2005), appointed Archbishop of San Francisco
John Charles Wester (2007 – 2015), appointed Archbishop of Santa Fe
Oscar Azarcon Solis (2017– present)
=== Coadjutor bishops ===
Joseph Lennox Federal (1958 – 1960)
=== Auxiliary bishops ===
Leo John Steck (1948 – 1950)
Joseph Lennox Federal (1951 – 1958), appointed coadjutor bishop and later bishop here
=== Other diocesan priest who became bishop ===
Robert Joseph Dwyer, appointed Bishop of Reno in 1952
== High schools ==
Juan Diego Catholic High School – Draper
Judge Memorial Catholic High School – Salt Lake City
St. Joseph Catholic High School – Ogden
== Religious orders ==
Rogationists of the Heart of Jesus - Salt Lake City
Sisters of the Holy Cross - Salt Lake City
Discalced Carmelite nuns - Salt Lake City
Order of Preachers - Salt Lake City
== Sexual Misconduct ==
In a 1993 article in the Salt Lake Tribune, an Ogden family told about reporting to the diocese in 1990 that their 14-year-old son had been sexually abused by Ray Devlin, a Jesuit teacher at St. Joseph's High School. The diocese asked the family to stay quiet about the assault; in return, the diocese would send Devlin away for treatment and never assign him near children again. However, in 1993, the family learned that Devlin was serving at a parish in Virginia City, Nevada, with proximity to children. The family contacted the Tribune. After the publication of the article, the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas removed Devlin from his parish; he was sent to a Jesuit retirement home and permanently suspended from ministry.
In 2003, brothers Charles and Louis Colosimo sued the Diocese of Salt Lake City, stating that they had been sexually assaulted as children by James F. Rapp from 1968 to 1972. The plaintiffs said that the diocese had received previous complaints about Rapp, but took no actions to protect the children. A judge dismissed the lawsuit the same year, stating that the plaintiffs had waited too long to file the lawsuit and had insufficient proof. In 2016, Rapp was sentenced to 40 years in prison in Oklahoma for sexually assaulting boys.
Mario Arbelaez Olarte of Ogden was arrested in May 17, 2003 in a police sting of social media sexual predators. Arbelaez Olerte was changed with a misdemeanor after arriving to meet with a person he thought was 14-years-old, but was instead a policeman. Olerte pleaded no contest to the charge and agreed to leave the United States.
In December 2018, the diocese published a list of 19 diocesan clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.
== References ==
== Sources and external links ==
Official website
The History of the Diocese of Salt Lake City Archived February 14, 2025, at the Wayback Machine
Clergy Allegations In the Diocese of Salt Lake City
Intermountain Catholic - newspaper of the Diocese of Salt Lake City
Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Diocese of Salt Lake" . Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.