Name changes The current Diocese of Gallup has undergone several name changes since its territory became part of the United States. The New Mexico counties came from: • Vicariate Apostolic of New Mexico (1850 to 1853) • Diocese of Santa Fe (1853 to 1875) • Archdiocese of Santa Fe (1875 to 1939) • Diocese of Gallup (1939 to present) The Arizona counties came from: • Diocese of Santa Fe (1868 to 1891) • Vicariate Apostolic of Arizona (1891 to 1897) •
Diocese of Tucson (1897 to 1939) • Diocese of Gallup (1939 to present)
1500 to 1898 The first Catholic presence in the present-day Gallup region was that of
Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar who arrived in the land of the
Zuni people in 1539, looking for cities of gold. He was followed in 1540 by the expedition of the Spaniard
Francisco Vasquez Coronado in Cibola, also looking for gold. During the 1580s, small parties of Franciscan friars started visiting the native settlements in the region, evangelizing the natives. The first colonizing expedition, under the first governor,
Juan de Onate, arrived in the
Pueblo nation in 1598. He sent friars to all the pueblos to spur on conversions to Catholicism. The next year, the Spanish were attacked by Pueblo tribesmen, prompting bloody reprisals. At this time, evangelizing began in the Zuni and
Hopi lands. The first Catholic church in
Gallup, New Mexico, was Sacred Heart Church, constructed by the priest George Julliard in 1899. St. Michael Indian School was opened in 1902 in
St. Michael's, Arizona by Franciscans from
St. Michael's Mission in
Window Rock, Arizona, with financial assistance from Mother
Katharine Drexel.
1939 to 2000 Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Gallup on December 16, 1939, taking its territory from the
Archdiocese of Santa Fe and the
Diocese of Tucson. The pope named
Bernard T. Espelage as the first bishop of Gallup. During Espelage's 29-year tenure, the Catholic population of the diocese increased from 30,000 to 79,260. The number of priests went from 32 to 108 and the number of parishes from 17 to 53. Pope John Paul II named
Donald Pelotte as
coadjutor archbishop in 1986 to assist Hastrich. When Hastrich retired in 1990, Pelotte automatically succeeded him as bishop of Gallup. Pelotte was the first Native American Catholic bishop in the United States, an
Abenaki from
Maine.
2000 to present In 2007, Pelotte suffered a
traumatic brain injury at his home and was hospitalized. In January 2008,
Pope Benedict XVI named an apostolic administrator to run the diocese. In April 2008, Pelotte retired due to his health problems. The pope in 2009 named
James S. Wall to replace Wall. In 2013, Wall renovated a chapel used by local seminarians with
sacred art in
santero, a
New Mexico folk art based on Spanish colonial art. In May 2023, Wall announced that the diocese was taking over operation of St. Michael's Mission from the Franciscans. Also in 2013, the diocese filed for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy in order to settle sexual abuse lawsuits against diocesan clergy.
Sex abuse In 2004, James Burns was sentenced to 18 months in prison for sexually abusing a boy in
Blanco, New Mexico. The diocese in 2005 identified Clement A. Hageman as an abuser of children from the 1940s to the 1970s. Hageman was transferred to the Archdiocese of Santa Fe from the
Diocese of Corpus Christi when allegations of sexual abuse arose there. The archdiocese later moved the priest to the Diocese of Gallup for the same reason. The diocese released a list of 42 clergy and one lay teacher with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors in 2014. ==Bishops==