OKLAHOMA and TULSA, DIOCESE OF. — In the United States of America. The diocese comprises the State of Oklahoma and has (1950) a total population of 2,230,253 inhabitants, of whom 75,748 are Catholics. The clergy consists of 124 diocesan priests and 93 religious from 15 different congregations. There are 108 parishes, 85 chapels, 79 missions, 22 female congregations, 2 religious schools and seminaries, 1 diocesan seminary, 2 colleges, 1 orphanage, and 12 hospitals.
The first white men to reach the diocese came from the diocese of Mexico in 1540 with Francisco Vásquez de Coronado and 300 Spaniards. From 1611 onwards Father Juan de Sales and other Spanish missionaries worked among the indigenous tribes. In 1682 La Salle took possession of the country, of which Oklahoma forms a part, in the name of Louis XIV. The territory was therefore called Louisiana.
On 22 April 1889 the country, previously reserved for the indigenous peoples, was opened to white settlement and the territory was constituted as a State in 1907.
Before 1889 only a few religious exercised the apostolate there. Monsignor Isidore Rabat, O.S.B., a Frenchman, was appointed first Apostolic Prefect in 1877, and the Catholic Church owes much to this blessed man. By a bull of 29 May 1891 the Apostolic Vicariate of the Indian Territories was established, and Monsignor Teofilo Meerschaert, a Belgian, was elected bishop. On 23 August 1905, Pius X created the Diocese of Oklahoma and transferred the see from Guthrie to Oklahoma. Finally, Pius XI modified the territory on 14 October 1930 to create the Diocese of Oklahoma City and Tulsa.