MILWAUKEE, ARCHDIOCESE OF. — In the State of Wisconsin (from the Algonquin «good land»; U.S.A.), of which it now comprises ten counties. It was erected by Pope Gregory XVI with the apostolic letter *Apostolatus officium* of 28 November 1843. At that time it included the entire State of Wisconsin and the western part of Minnesota. On 12 February 1875 it was raised to the status of an archdiocese, and has as its suffragan sees the dioceses of Green Bay, La Crosse, Madison, and Superior.
According to the census of 1950, the total population of the archdiocese is 1,435,345, of whom (1951) 434,345 are Catholics. There are 971 priests (among whom 344 belong to 22 different Congregations) who exercise their ministry in 263 parishes and 37 chapels. There are also 2 seminaries for boys, 7 colleges and universities, 13 general hospitals and 6 specialized hospitals and sanatoria. The female Congregations number 34.
The first to celebrate Mass in the territory of Milwaukee was the priest J. Bonduel, a missionary from Green Bay; the first bishop was Mgr. G. Martino Henni, originally from Switzerland. Under his leadership the number of Catholics, mostly immigrants from Germany and Ireland, increased considerably. In 1856, the Rev. Giuseppe Salzmann founded in Milwaukee the St Francis de Sales Seminary, and in 1871 he opened the first Catholic normal school in the United States. The Jesuit Fathers inaugurated, in 1880,