Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jackson is a diocese in the ecclesiastical province of Mobile, in the southern United States of America. Its ecclesiastical jurisdiction includes the northern and central parts of the state of Mississippi, an area of 97,458 square kilometers (37,629 sq mi). It is the largest diocese, by area, in the United States east of the Mississippi River. It was formerly known as the Diocese of Natchez (1837–1956) and the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson (1956–77). Jackson, Mississippi is the episcopal see.

Diocese of Jackson

Dioecesis Jacksoniensis
Cathedral of St. Peter
Location
Country United States
TerritoryNorthern and central Mississippi (65 counties)
Ecclesiastical provinceMobile
Statistics
Area37,643 sq mi (97,490 km2)
Population
- Total
- Catholics		(as of 2013)
2,219,000
52,900 (2.4%)
Parishes74
Information
DenominationCatholic
Sui iuris churchLatin Church
RiteRoman Rite
EstablishedJuly 28, 1837 (183 years ago)
CathedralCathedral of St. Peter the Apostle
Patron saintSt. Peter the Apostle
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
BishopJoseph R. Kopacz
Metropolitan ArchbishopThomas John Rodi
Bishops emeritusJoseph Nunzio Latino
Map
Website
jacksondiocese.org

History

The region which is now the Diocese of Jackson made its first contacts with the Catholic Church through French Jesuit and Capuchin missionaries during the expeditions of La Salle, Marquette, and d'Iberville in the 17th and 18th centuries. In 1787, three Spanish priests, Fathers McKenna, White, and Savage, arrived at Natchez from Salamanca and erected three missions in the vicinity. These missions, however, virtually disappeared after the Spanish turned over the area to the United States. Much valuable property was lost to the Church, and the efforts made to recover it were in vain.[1]

The diocese was originally erected as the Vicariate Apostolic of Mississippi, an administrative region of the church separate from the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas (Saint Louis of New Orleans) to which it had previously belonged, and which itself would later become the Diocese of New Orleans on 18 July 1826. At the head of the Vicariate was Louis-Guillaume-Valentin Dubourg, P.S.S., who served less than a year before being appointed bishop of Montauban, France (he would eventually become the archbishop of Besançon).

The Vicariate was elevated to the Diocese of Natchez on 28 July 1837. Although the Diocese of Natchez encompassed the entire state of Mississippi, nearly three years passed before John Mary Joseph Chanche, S.S. (1795–1852), president of St. Mary's College in Baltimore, was appointed as its first bishop on 15 December 1840. Bishop Chanche, like his predecessor, was of French lineage, having been born to parents who had fled to Baltimore from the French colony of Saint-Domingue (present-day Haiti), presumably during the Haitian revolution. At his arrival in Mississippi, he found one priest in the diocese, a Father Brogard, who was there only temporarily. Chanche set to work building a diocesan infrastructure.

In 1842 Bishop Chanche laid the cornerstone of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Sorrows, designed by Robert Cary Long Jr. After the diocesan see was translated to Jackson, this became St. Mary's Basilica. In 1847 the Sisters of Charity of Emmitsburg came to Natchez and established Saint Mary's Orphanage.[2] Chanche attended the First Plenary Council of 1852, held in Baltimore, Maryland. While returning to Natchez, he died at Frederick, Maryland, presumably of cholera.[3] He had built 11 churches, with a team of 11 priests and 13 attendant missions.

A curious series of events regarding the separation of church and state involved the Diocese of Natchez in 1864, during the American Civil War. That year, Bishop William Henry Elder refused to bend to orders from the Federal troops administering Natchez to compel his parishioners to pray for the President of the United States. For this act, Elder was tried, convicted, and then jailed briefly in Vidalia, Louisiana, just across the Mississippi River from Natchez. Elder wrote to President Lincoln explaining that his refusal was not political, but based on the authority of the church to regulate church services. After officials in Washington intervened, Elder was ordered released on 12 August 1864.[4] As of 2006, Elder remains the second-longest-serving bishop in the diocese's history.

By the mid-20th century, the capitol of the state of Mississippi, Jackson, had grown to perhaps be a more appropriate center for the administration of the diocese. To reflect this fact, on 18 December 1956 the name was changed to Diocese of Natchez-Jackson. Finally, on 1 March 1977, the diocese was divided, with the southern counties of Mississippi being reorganized as the Diocese of Biloxi. Concurrently, the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson became simply the Diocese of Jackson. Since the relocation of the diocese to Jackson, the Diocese of Natchez has been maintained as a titular see.

Sex Abuse

In 2006, the Diocese of Jackson, Mississippi, settled a handful of lawsuits with 19 victims with a $5 million settlement which included an average payout of more than $250,000 for each survivor. In August 2019, it was revealed that a 35-year-old man named La Jarvis D. Love was sexually abused at a Franciscan Friar grade school in Greenwood, Mississippi, when he was a boy and that Order attempted to keep him silent in later years by offering him $15,000.[5] Love and Wisconsin-based Franciscan Friar leader James Gannon secretly signed a non-disclosure agreement in January 2019 which insured that the order would give Love a financial settlement. This came in spite of the fact that the Catholic Church agreed to ban non-disclosure agreements. By August 30, the accused friar's name was revealed to be Paul West and Love's three cousins Joshua Love, La Jarvis Love and Raphael Love also accused him of sexually abusing them in the mid 1990s.[6]

Demographics

The first seat of the diocese was Saint Mary Basilica (then Cathedral) in Natchez, whose cornerstone was laid by Bishop Chanche in 1842. The current seat is the Cathedral of St. Peter the Apostle in Jackson. Since 1998, however, the church has maintained a minor basilica at the former cathedral in Natchez; it is now formally known as St. Mary Basilica.

The Diocese of Jackson encompasses an area of the United States that has historically been (and still is) overwhelmingly Protestant. Only about 2.6% of the residents in the diocese are considered Catholic (about 52,000 Catholics out of a total population of nearly 2 million). The diocese contains 74 parishes and has 79 priests.

Bishops

Ordinaries

Bishops of Natchez
  1. John J. Chanche, P.S.S. (1840–1852)
  2. James Oliver Van de Velde, S.J. (1853–1855)
  3. William Henry Elder (1857–1880), appointed Archbishop of Cincinnati
  4. Francis Janssens (1881–1888), appointed Archbishop of New Orleans
  5. Thomas Heslin (1889–1911)
  6. John Edward Gunn, S.M. (1911–1924)

Bishop of Natchez-Jackson
  1. Richard Oliver Gerow (1924–1967)

Bishops of Jackson
  1. Joseph Bernard Brunini (1967–1984)
  2. William Russell Houck (1984–2003)
  3. Joseph Nunzio Latino (2003–2013)
  4. Joseph R. Kopacz (2014–present)

Auxiliary Bishop

Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

Schools

Middle Schools and High Schools

Elementary Schools
  • Annunciation Catholic Elementary School (Columbus)
  • Cathedral Elementary School (Natchez)
  • Holy Child Jesus Elementary School (Canton)
  • Holy Family Elementary School (Holly Springs)
  • Our Lady of Lourdes Elementary School (Greenville)
  • Sacred Heart Elementary School (Southaven)
  • St. Alphonsus Elementary School (McComb)
  • St. Anthony Elementary School (Madison)
  • St. Elizabeth Elementary School (Clarksdale)
  • St. Francis of Assisi Elementary School (Greenwood)
  • St. Francis Elementary School (Vicksburg)
  • St. Patrick Elementary School (Meridian)
  • St. Therese Elementary School (Jackson)
  • St. Richard Catholic School (Jackson)
  • Sister Thea Bowman Catholic School (Jackson)

See also
  • Catholic Church hierarchy
  • List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
  • Natchesium

References
  1. Charles, Brother. "Natchez." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. 26 February 2020 This article incorporates text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  2. Namorato, Michael V., The Catholic Church in Mississippi, 1911-1984: A History, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998, p. 7ISBN 9780313307195
  3. "Body of first bishop of Mississippi exhumed in Baltimore". Archdiocese of Baltimore. 2012-01-19. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  4. Character Glimpses of Most Reverend William Henry Elder, D.D., published by Frederick Pustet & Company, New York and Cincinnati, 1911
  5. "After secrecy, Catholic church settles sex abuse case with black man". NBC News. Retrieved 2020-04-08.
  6. Press, Associated. "Survivors demand US investigation of Mississippi abuse deals |". Retrieved 2020-04-08.

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Natchez". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.

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