SPRINGFIELD-ILLINOIS, DIOCESI di. - Diocese and city in the State of Illinois (U.S.A.). The present diocese of S. was created by Pius IX on 29 July 1853 at Quincy, by separation from Chicago; it was then transferred by the same Pope to Alton on 9 Jan. 1857, and finally by Pius XI to S. on 26 Oct. 1923, by decree of the S. Congregazione Concistoriale.
At the time of its foundation, the diocese of Chicago, from which it was separated, covered the entire State of Illinois. The population of the diocese was composed largely of Germans who had come from Cincinnati and settled at Quincy, Teutopolis, and Germantown. Swiss Catholics founded Highland and the Alsatians Ste-Marie. The construction of the railways attracted a considerable number of Irish. When Msgr. Enrico Damiano Juncker (1857-68) took possession of the diocese of Alton, he found 58 churches, 30 stations, 28 priests, and a Catholic population of approximately 50,000 souls. Today the total population (1950 census) is 969,006 inhabitants, of whom 114,943 are Catholics. There are 364 diocesan priests (139 religious: Redemptorists, Franciscans, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, S. Cuore di Gesù, Franciscan Tertiaries of the Holy Cross), 138 parishes, 74 chapels, 36 missions, 1 seminary (66 seminarians), 6 scholasticates (119 students), 1 university (Quincy University, directed by the Franciscans), 1 college, 1 orphanage, 15 hospitals, 19 women’s congregations, and 1,160 nuns.
Gastone Carrière
SPRINGFIELD - MASSACHUSETTS, DIOCESE of. - City and diocese in the State of Massachusetts (United States). The diocese of S., Mass. (Campifontis), suffragan of Boston, was erected on 28 June 1870 in the central and western part of Massachusetts, with an area of 4,320 square miles.
Some of the first Puritans in central and western Massachusetts became Catholics. There were several Acadians in Worcester in 1755, but the last returned to Canada around 1767. In 1830, the Rev. Giacomo Fitton celebrated the first Mass in Chicopee; on 7 July 1834, the first church of the diocese was established in Worcester, and in 1856 he became its first parish priest. The first resident pastor in the western part of Massachusetts was the Rev. Giovanni D. Brady, serving in Chicopee in 1841. On 28 June 1870, Mons. Patrick T. O'Reilly was appointed the first bishop of S., and under his leadership, the Catholic population grew from 80,000 to 200,000, priests increased from 43 to 196, and the bishop built 45 churches.
Today (after the establishment of the diocese of Worcester, carved out of S.), the diocese covers an area of 2,822 square miles, with a total population (1950 census) of 637,507, of whom 296,286 are Catholics. There are 445 diocesan priests (149 religious from 8 different congregations), 122 parishes, 8 chapels, 18 missions, 19 women’s congregations, 1,057 nuns, 4 scholasticates, 1 college, 3 orphanages, and 4 hospitals.