Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City


The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Oklahoma City is a particular church of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in the midwestern region of the United States. Its ecclesiastical territory includes 46 counties in western Oklahoma. The Most Reverend Paul Stagg Coakley is the current archbishop. As such, he is the metropolitan of the ecclesiastical province which includes the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, the Diocese of Tulsa and the Diocese of Little Rock. Previously the bishop of the Diocese of Salina in Kansas, Archbishop Coakley was appointed to Oklahoma City on December 16, 2010 and installed as archbishop on February 11, 2011.

History

The diocese had its roots through French Benedictine monks who entered Indian Territory in 1875 to establish a Catholic presence. The Diocese of Oklahoma was established in 1905 with Belgian Theophile Meerschaert as its first bishop. St. Joseph's Church in downtown Oklahoma City served the diocese as its first cathedral until Our Lady of Perpetual Help replaced it in 1931. In the 1930s the name was changed to the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa to reflect shifting population trends in Oklahoma. It first achieved international attention when, in 1949, it became home to the National Shrine of the Infant Jesus of Prague. On December 13, 1972, Pope Paul VI split the diocese into two, creating the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, which ministers to Catholics in the western part of Oklahoma, and the Diocese of Tulsa, which ministers to those in the east. On September 23, 2017, Father Stanley Francis Rother, a priest of the Archdiocese, was beatified during a Mass at the Cox Convention Center in Oklahoma City. He had been murdered while working in Guatemala in 1981. Pope Francis had declared him a martyr, saying he had been killed "in odium fidei".

Bishops

Ordinaries

;Prefects of Indian Territory
  1. Isidore Robot, OSB
  2. Ignatius Jean, OSB
;Vicar Apostolic of Indian Territory
  1. Theophile Meerschaert
;Bishops of Oklahoma
  1. Theophile Meerschaert
  2. Francis Kelley
;Bishops of Oklahoma City-Tulsa
  1. Francis Kelley
  2. Eugene J. McGuinness
  3. Victor Reed
  4. John R. Quinn
;''Archbishops of Oklahoma City
  1. John R. Quinn, appointed Archbishop of San Francisco
  2. Charles Salatka
  3. Eusebius Beltran
  4. Paul Stagg Coakley

    Coadjutor Bishop

  5. Eugene J. McGuinness

    Other priests of this diocese who became Bishops

The official news and information publication of the diocese is the Sooner Catholic.

High schools