DUBUQUE, ARCHDIOCESE of. - Archdiocese and city of the State of Iowa in the United States of America. Its territory, of ca. 45,250 sq. km., extends into the north of that same State with the counties of Polk, Jasper, Poweshick, Iowa, Johnson, Cedar and Clinton, and to the east with the counties of Kossuth, Humboldt, Webster and Boone; it has as suffragans the dioceses of Nebraska and of Michigan, that is Omaha, Lincoln, Grand Island, Davenport, Sioux City and Des Moines.
In 1948, out of a population of over 800,000 inhabitants, D. counted 140,620 Catholics under the direction of 1 auxiliary bishop, 362 diocesan priests and 35 religious, with 241 parishes, 40 chapels, 43 missions, 7 stations, 2 seminaries, 4 colleges, 4 academies, 79 high schools and 108 parochial schools. In 1946 there were 769 conversions. There are 3 male religious communities, among which a Cistercian abbey of strict observance at Peosta, and 17 female ones.
Explored and evangelized in the 17th and 18th centuries by the missionaries of Canada, this territory became accessible to European colonization only after its annexation to the United States, that is, starting from 1833. D., thanks to its lead mines, attracted many settlers. Among these the Catholics came especially from France, from Germany and from Ireland; upon them and upon the Indians shone the zeal of the Dominican Samuel Mazzucchelli. Once the number of parishes had grown, on 28 July 1837 the eastern part of the Wisconsin of that time was detached from the diocese of St. Louis to form a diocese suffragan of Baltimore with its seat in D. Having then become a suffragan of St. Louis, when this was erected as a metropolitan see, on 20 July 1847, through successive dismemberments the dioceses of Davenport (1881), of Sioux (1902) and of Des Moines (1911) were formed, until it in turn became a metropolitan see on 15 June 1893.
Bibliography8 works
Corrado Morin