Sioux City

Sioux City

DIOCESE OF SIOUX CITY (SIOPOLITAN).

Erected 15 Jan., 1902, by Leo XIII. The establishment of this diocese was provided for in the Bull appointing Most Rev. John J. Keane, D.D., to the Archbishopric of Dubuque on 24 July, 1900. This provision was made on the occasion of that appointment for the reason that the new diocese was taken entirely from Archdiocese of Dubuque. It comprises twenty-four counties in north-western Iowa, including a territory of 14,518 square miles. Sioux City is on the extreme limit of the western boundary of Iowa, situated on the east bank of the Missouri River, about one hundred miles north of Omaha. With the exception of Des Moines, the capital, it is the largest and most enterprising municipality in the State of Iowa, containing a population of between fifty and sixty thousand. It is in the midst of a large and rich agricultural country, and relies chiefly on the products of the soil, of which the staple article is corn; consequently grain-packing is the chief industry of Sioux City. The Catholic population of the diocese is almost sixty thousand. It has 138 churches, including missions, 122 priests, of whom 6 are religious (4 Friars Minor and 2 Fathers of the Sacred Heart); 53 parochial schools, with 4 hospitals; 4 academies; 2 schools of domestic science; an orphanage, a Good Shepherd home, an infant asylum, a home for the aged, and a working girls' home. There are 7327 children in the parish schools, and nearly 8000 under Catholic care. The composition of the Catholic population of the diocese is English-speaking and German. These form the principal elements of the Church's membership here, and are almost equally divided in numbers. A characteristic feature of western Catholicism is manifest here as in other western dioceses, that is the ardent desire of the people for parochial schools wherever it is possible. Out of the 10,000 children of school age (i.e. under seventeen years) in the diocese, three-fourths are in parochial schools. The following orders conduct schools and charitable institutions in the diocese: Sisters of Charity B.V.M., Sisters of Christian Charity, Sisters of St. Dominic, Sister of St. Francis (Dubuque, Iowa), Franciscan Sisters (Clinton, Iowa), Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, School Sisters of St. Francis, Presentation Nuns, Servants of Mary, Sister of St. Benedict, Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of the Good Shepherd.

Since its establishment nine years ago, the diocese is thoroughly organized and has been constantly expanding by the erection of churches, schools, and expanding by the erection of churches, schools, and other institutions. The present bishop, the Right Reverend Philip J. Garrigan, D.D., first bishop of the diocese, was born in Ireland in the early forties, came to this country with his parents, and received his elementary education in the public schools of Lowell, Mass. He pursued his classical course at St. Charles's College, Ellicott City, Maryland, and courses of philosophy and theology at the Provincial Seminary of New York at Troy, where he was ordained on 11 June, 1870. After a short term as curate of St. John's Church, Worcester, Massachusetts, he was appointed director of the Troy seminary for three years; and was for fourteen years afterwards pastor of St. Bernard's Church, Fitchburg, Massachusetts. In the fall of 1888 he was appointed first vice-rector of the Catholic University at Washington, D. C., which position he also held for fourteen years. He was named Bishop of Sioux City on 21 March, 1902, and consecrated at the see of his home diocese, Springfield, Massachusetts, on 25 May of the same year, by the Right Rev. T.D. Beaven, and on 18 June following took possession of his see.

PHILIP J. GARRIGAN