KANSAS CITY IN KANSAS, DIOCESE OF. — A city and diocese in the State of Kansas in the United States of America. The diocese comprises the following counties of the State of Kansas: Anderson, Atchison, Brown, Coffey, Doniphan, Douglas, Franklin, Jackson, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Linn, Lyon, Marshall, Miami, Nemaha, Osage, Pottawatomie, Shawnee, Wabaussee, and Wyandotte.
The diocese has an area of 12,524 square miles with a population of 594,289 inhabitants, of whom 80,000 are Catholics; it has 133 parishes, 16 chapels, 99 diocesan priests and 211 regular clergy, 7 male religious communities, among which is the abbey of St. Benedict, 16 female religious communities, 3 seminaries, 5 colleges, 14 high schools; in 1949 there were 735 conversions.
On 19 July 1850 Pope Pius IX established an apostolic vicariate for the Indian Territory east of the Rocky Mountains, which included the present States of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, most of Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, and part of Colorado. The first apostolic vicar was the Jesuit Giovanni B. Miège (b. 18 Sept. 1815, d. 21 July 1884), who several times traversed the vast apostolic vicariate by carriage and resigned on 8 Nov. 1874; Pope Pius IX on 22 May 1877 erected the diocese of Leavenworth, assigning it to the Benedictine Msgr. Luigi M. Fink (1877–1904); he was succeeded by Msgr. Tommaso F. Lillis (1904–10), then by Msgr. G. Ward (1910–29), then by Msgr. P. C. Schulte (1937), who was elevated to the archdiocese of Indianapolis in 1946; on 9 Nov. of the same year Msgr. G. D. Donnelly was promoted as his successor. The title of the diocese was changed to that of Kansas City in Kansas on 10 May 1947. Patrons of the diocese are the Blessed Virgin Mary under the title of the Immaculate Conception and St. John Vianney. The cathedral is dedicated to St. Peter the Apostle.