Denver, Archdiocese of

DENVER, Archdiocese of. - Archdiocese and capital city of the state of Colorado (United States of America). Its territory comprises thirty-three counties of northern Colorado and in 1948 counted a population of about 800,000 inhabitants, of whom 91,000 were Catholics directed by 136 diocesan priests and 116 regulars, with 84 parishes, 84 missions, 29 chapels, a diocesan seminary, 2 colleges, 14 diocesan High-Schools and 4 private ones, 37 parochial schools; in 1946 there were 723 conversions. In the territory of D. there are 12 male religious communities and 26 female ones. The Cathedral is dedicated to the Immaculate Conception.

The state of Colorado, which from 1850 depended spiritually on the apostolic vicariate of Leavenworth, began to be colonized in 1852 by Spanish colonists who came from New Mexico. Following the discovery of gold in 1858, this territory increased its population so greatly that on 5 February 1868 the Holy See raised it to an apostolic vicariate of Colorado and Utah, at the request of the 2nd plenary council of Baltimore (1866). In 1871 the territory of Utah passed under the jurisdiction of the archbishop of San Francisco, and on 8 August 1887 Colorado itself received its diocese with its seat at D., remaining a suffragan of Santa Fe until its erection as a metropolitan see on 15 November 1941, on which occasion the diocese of Pueblo was created on the same day, being detached from its territory.

Corrado Marin