Indianapolis, Archdiocese of

INDIANAPOLIS, ARCHDIOCESE OF. - City and archdiocese in the State of Indiana in the United States of America.

It comprises the counties of Bartholomew, Brown, Clark, Clay, Crawford, Deaborn, Decatur, Fayette, Floyd, Franklin, Hancock, Harrison, Hendricks, Henry, Jackson, Jefferson, Jennings, Johnson, Lawrence, Marion, Monroe, Morgan, Ohio, Orange, Owen, Parke, Perry, Putnam, Ripley, Rush, Scott, Shelby, Switzerland, Union, Vermillion, Vigo, Washington and Wayne and the territory of Harrison in Spencer County, in the southern part of the State of Indiana.

It has an area of 8,325 square miles with a population (1940) of 1,287,813 inhabitants, of whom 119,093 are Catholics, distributed in 118 parishes, served by 228 diocesan priests and 226 religious, 4 male religious communities with 350 professed members and 13 female communities with 2,466 professed members; it also has a pro-seminary and College, the Benedictine abbey of St. Meinrad with a major and minor seminary, West Baden University, a house of studies for the scholastics of the Chicago province of the Society of Jesus, with West Baden College attached; furthermore Marian College and St. Mary of the Woods College; 3 diocesan and parochial High Schools, and 87 parochial schools; in 1949 there were 1,212 conversions.

Pope Gregory XVI created the diocese for the State of Indiana and the eastern part of the State of Illinois on 12 Apr. 1834 with residence at Vincennes.

The first bishop was Msgr. S. G. Brute of the Congregation of St. Sulpice (1834-39), who had to go to Europe in 1835 to seek the clergy necessary for the diocese. His successor Msgr. C. de la Hailandière (1839-47) obtained by apostolic brief permission to reside not only at Vincennes but also at Madison, at Lafayette or at I., an authorization granted in part also to the fourth bishop Msgr. R. de St. Palais. By apostolic brief of 23 March 1898 Pope Leo XIII changed the title of the diocese to that of I., fixing the episcopal see in that city, with St. Francis Xavier remaining patron, to whom the cathedral of Vincennes was dedicated.

Pope Pius XII, by the apostolic constitution Ad Christianae plebis of 21 Oct. 1944, elevated the church of I. to the rank and dignity of a metropolitan church, withdrawing it from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical province of Cincinnati, creating the new province of I. and assigning as suffragans the two new dioceses of Evansville and Lafayette, created by dismemberment from I., and the diocese of Fort Wayne, separated to the province of Cincinnati. The cathedral is dedicated to the Sts. apostles Peter and Paul.

Enrico Josi