The Diocese of Fairbanks () is a diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern part of the state of Alaska and geographically the largest diocese in the United States. The mother church is the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Fairbanks. The bishop is Steven Maekawa.

History

1867 – 1900

When the United States purchased Alaska in 1867 from the Empire of Russia, it was under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Vancouver Island in Canada. Bishop Charles Seghers of that diocese made several missionary trips to Alaska during the early 1870s. He later sent John Althoff, a Dutch priest, to create missions in Wrangell, Alaska, the Cassiar mining district on the Stikine River, and the former Russian capital of Sitka, Alaska. Althoff established the first permanent Catholic presence in Alaska when he founded Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Wrangell on May 3, 1879. After the discovery of gold near Juneau, Alaska, Althoff moved there. He celebrated the first mass and baptism in Juneau in an interdenominational "Log Cabin Church" on July 17, 1882.

In May 1886, Seghers was murdered by a traveling companion near Nulato, Alaska, while on a missionary trip. After learning of Segher's death, Pascal Tosi of the Society of Jesus unilaterally took control of the Alaska missions. Later that summer in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, the Jesuit superior of the Rocky Mountain Mission, Joseph M. Cataldo, appointed Tosi as superior of the Alaska mission. Due to poor health, Tosi was forced to resign in 1897; Leo XIII replaced him with Jean-Baptiste René from the Society of Jesus.

1900 – 1951

thumb|369x369px|Immaculate Conception Church, Fairbanks, Alaska (2014)

When Rene resigned in 1904, Pope Pius X named Joseph Crimont of the Society of Jesus as what would be the last prefect apostolic.

The first church in the Alaskan interior was Immaculate Conception Church in 1904, built two years after the establishment of Fairbanks as a trading post. Father Francis Monroe raised $3,000 from gold miners to build the structure. In 1906, Monroe conducted fundraising again to construct Saint Joseph's Hospital, the first hospital in Fairbanks. The Sisters of Providence from Montreal, Quebec, came to operate Saint Joseph's in 1910.

On December 22, 1916, Pope Benedict XV elevated the Prefecture Apostolic of Alaska to the Vicariate Apostolic of Alaska.

In 1962, Pope John XXIII suppressed the Vicariate of Northern Alaska and replaced it with the new Diocese of Fairbanks, with Gleeson as its first bishop.

After Gleeson retired in 1968, Whelan succeeded him as bishop. Whalen established the Native Diaconate Program, ordaining 28 Native Alaskan men to the permanent diaconate. Michael Kaniecki of the Society of Jesus was made coadjutor bishop in 1984. Whelan's resignation as bishop of Fairbanks was accepted by the pope in 1985, and Kaniecki succeeded him.

From 2000

thumb|Bishop Kettler (2013)

Kaniecki died suddenly in 2000. In 2002, John Paul II appointed Donald Kettler of the Diocese of Sioux Falls as the first non-Jesuit bishop of Fairbanks.

On September 17, 2020, Pope Francis suppressed the Archdiocese of Anchorage and the Diocese of Juneau and erected the Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau. He designated the Diocese of Fairbanks as the only suffragan of the new archdiocese.

Bishops and other ordinaries

thumb|Bishop Zielinski (2014)

Prefects Apostolic of Alaska

  1. Pascal Tosi (1894–1897)
  2. Jean-Baptiste René (1897–1904)
  3. Joseph Raphael John Crimont (1904–1917), appointed Vicar Apostolic of Alaska

Vicars Apostolic of Alaska

  1. Joseph Raphael John Crimont (1917–1945)
  2. Walter James Fitzgerald (1945–1947; Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic 1939–1945)
  3. Francis Doyle Gleeson (1948–1951), title changed to Vicar Apostolic of Northern Alaska

Vicar Apostolic of Northern Alaska

  • Francis Doyle Gleeson (1951-1962); Appointed first Bishop of Fairbanks

Bishops of Fairbanks

  1. Francis Doyle Gleeson (1962–1968) <br> - George Theodore Boileau (Coadjutor Bishop 1964–1965), died before succession
  2. Robert Louis Whelan (1968–1985; coadjutor bishop 1968)
  3. Michael Joseph Kaniecki (1985–2000; coadjutor bishop 1984-1985)
  4. Donald Joseph Kettler (2002–2013), appointed Bishop of Saint Cloud
  5. Chad William Zielinski (2014–2022), appointed Bishop of New Ulm
  6. Steven Maekawa, O.P. (2023–present)

Other priest of the Vicariate of Alaska who became a bishop

Robert Dermot O'Flanagan, appointed Bishop of Juneau in 1951

Education

  • Immaculate Conception Elementary, Fairbanks
  • Monroe Catholic High School, Fairbanks

Media

  • The Alaskan Shepherd, a diocesan newsletter
  • KNOM radio. Established in 1971, KNOM is the oldest Catholic radio station in the country.
  • KQHE radio. Established in 2012.

Controversies

Sexual abuse cases

In 1969, Bishop Whelan granted the request for Joseph Lundowski, a lay volunteer, to officially distribute communion at St. Michael's Parish in a remote Alaskan village. Lundowski was neither a priest or a deacon. In 1964, Vicar General John E. Gurr had received a letter from a priest who complained that Lundowski was sexually abusing boys in his parish. Gurr took no action. After a local resident spotting Lundowski molesting a young boy, he exposed the scandal in the village. The local priest, himself accused later of child molestation, immediately flew Lundowski out of the village. When the diocese filed for bankruptcy in 2012, it acknowledged that reports of abuse spanned "over the last six decades." Over time, the diocese's list of "credibly accused" clergy grew as well.

References

  • Roman Catholic Diocese of Fairbanks Official Site