1540 to 1857 The earliest Catholic presence in present-day Kansas was during the 1540s, when
Juan de Padilla, the Spanish missionary priest, accompanied the Spanish explorer
Francisco Vázquez de Coronado on his expedition through the region. During the 18th century, present-day Kansas was under the jurisdictions of Spain and France. The few Catholics in the area were governed by the
Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, based in
New Orleans. After the
Louisiana Purchase of 1803, Kansas became part of the United States. The Vatican in 1826 erected the
Diocese of St. Louis, which included Kansas and the vast
Missouri Territory. During the early 1800s, Catholic missionaries started building chapels for their Native American converts. In 1847, Jesuit priests established the
St. Mary's Mission in
St. Marys, Kansas, along the
Oregon Trail, to evangelize the
Potawatomi people.
Pope Pius IX in 1850 erected the Vicariate Apostolic of Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains. This huge jurisdiction contained the present-day
states of
Kansas, Nebraska,
North and
South Dakota, Colorado,
Wyoming, and Montana. The pope named
John Miège from St. Louis as the vicar apostolic. Miège arrived in 1851 at an Potawatomi encampment on the
Kansas River. At that time, his vicariate contained five churches, eight priests, and 5,000 Catholics. Miège conducted extensive pastoral visitations throughout the vicariate, visiting Native American villages, forts, trading posts, and growing towns. He would celebrate
mass at these stops on the rear end of his
wagon.
1857 to 1877 In 1857, the Vatican suppressed the Vicariate of the Indian Territory, creating instead the Vicariate of Kansas, including all of Kansas. Miège was made vicar of the new vicariate. The first Catholic church in Kansas City, Kansas, was St. Mary's, founded in 1858. In
Topeka, Assumption Parish was the first in that city, starting in 1862. Miège erected an episcopal residence in Leavenworth in 1863. That same year, the Benedictine Sisters founded the
Mount St. Scholastica convent in
Atchison, Kansas. At the beginning of Fink's tenure in 1874, the vicariate contained 65 priests, 88 churches, 13
parochial schools, and a Catholic population of approximately 25,000.
1877 to 1947 In 1877,
Pope Leo XIII replaced the Vicariate of Kansas with the
Diocese of Leavenworth, covering all of Kansas. By 1881, the number of Catholics in the diocese had risen to 60,000. During his tenure, Lillis established several new congregations, churches, and parochial schools. When Ward died in 1929, Johannes automatically succeeded him as bishop of Leavenworth. Johannes died in 1937. To replace Johannes in Leavenworth, Pius XI named
Paul Schulte. In 1946, Schulte became archbishop of the
Archdiocese of Indianapolis.
Pope Pius XII then selected Auxiliary Bishop
George Donnelly from the
Archdiocese of St. Louis as the next bishop of Leavenworth.
1947 to 1969 On May 10, 1947, in recognition of the growth of Kansas City, Kansas,
Pope Pius XII renamed the Diocese of Leavenworth as the Diocese of Kansas City in Kansas, with Donnelly remaining as bishop. In 1990, Strecker established background and
reference checks for all persons working with children, including employees and volunteers, at the archdiocese as part of a policy to combat sexual abuse of minors. In 1992, Strecker denounced the
pro-choice views of State Representative
Kathleen Sebelius. He accused Sebelius, a Catholic, of leading "the death-march of the unborn to the abortion clinics in the [Kansas] House of Representatives" and "attempting to make the 'death-marches' to the abortion clinics as legal as the death-marches to the gas chambers of the World War II Holocaust." Strecker retired in 1993.
Pope Saint John Paul II named Bishop
James Keleher of the
Diocese of Belleville as archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas in 1993. In 1996, Keleher started an education program to fight
child sexual abuse in the archdiocese and instituted a background questionnaire for anyone working with children. In 2003, he instituted VIRTUS, a national child abuse prevention program.
2004 to present (
pictured in 2011) In January 2004, John Paul II appointed Auxiliary Bishop
Joseph Naumann of St. Louis to serve as
coadjutor archbishop for Keleher. In February 2004, Keleher requested that the parishes and Catholic institutions within the archdiocese stop inviting politicians who support
abortion rights for women to any events. This request was precipitated by the
University of St. Mary in Leavenworth inviting Sebelius to speak there. After Keleher resigned in 2005, his successor, Joseph Naumann, attempted to persuade Sebelius to change her stance on abortion rights; when she refused, he denied her communion. The archdiocese in 2022 spent $2.45 million in support of a proposed amendment to the
Kansas constitution to forbid abortion, which was eventually defeated by a 59 to 41% margin. Pope Francis named Bishop
W. Shawn McKnight of Jefferson City as the archbishop of Kansas City in Kansas on April 8, 2025.
Reports of sex abuse In February 2019, it was announced that the
Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) had been investigating sex abuse allegations against the Kansas dioceses since November 2018. On August 14, 2020, Melissa Underwood, spokeswoman for the KBI, stated in an email “As of Aug. 7, we have had 205 reports of abuse and have opened 120 cases.” ==Bishops==