1850 to 1950 In 1850,
Pope Pius IX erected the Apostolic Vicariate of Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains. This vicariate covered all of the
Missouri Territory, which then included the Kansas region. Seven years later, Pius IX create a separate
Apostolic Vicariate of Kansas, covering the newly created
Kansas Territory. The first resident pastor within the Wichita area was appointed in 1873. The
Diocese of Leavenworth, covering all of Kansas, was erected in 1877 by Pius IX. He named
Louis Mary Fink as its first bishop. The Dodge City area remained part of the Diocese of Wichita for the next 64 years.
1950 to present In 1951,
Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Dodge City, taking its territory from the Diocese of Wichita. He named
John Baptist Franz as the first bishop of Dodge City. At that time,
Sacred Heart Church in Dodge City became the diocesan cathedral. Franz became the bishop of the
Diocese of Peoria in 1959.
Pope Paul VI named Forst as auxiliary bishop of the
Diocese of Kansas City in 1976. To replace Forst,
Eugene Gerber was appointed the third bishop of Dodge City by Paul VI in 1976. In 1982,
Pope John Paul II named Gerber as bishop of Wichita. In 1983, Auxiliary Bishop
Stanley Schlarman of the
Diocese of Belleville became the fourth bishop of Dodge City. During his tenure in Dodge City, Schlarman recruited
Burmese, Filipino, and
Vietnamese priests; established a diocesan
vocations office, a
pastoral council, and an office of aging and parenting; and promoted the pastoral ministry training program and
Cursillo movement. Schlarman retired in 1998.
Ronald Gilmore was named bishop of Dodge City in 1998. A new cathedral, the
Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was consecrated in 2001.
Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the diocese. Gilmore retired in 2010. As of 2026, the bishop of Dodge City is
John Balthasar Brungardt from Wichita. He was named by
Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.
Sex abuse In February 2019, the
Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) announced that it had been investigating sex abuse allegations against all the Catholic dioceses in Kansas since November 2018. On August 14, 2020, KBI spokeswoman Melissa Underwood stated, "As of Aug. 7, we have had 205 reports of abuse and have opened 120 cases."In October 2019, the diocese released a list of ten priests and two seminarians with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. ==Bishops==