1800 to 1900 The first Catholic presence in present-day North Dakota was in 1818. Archbishop
Joseph-Octave Plessis of the Archdiocese of Quebec sent a priest to visit
Fort Pembina, a settlement of several French-Canadian families from the
Red River Colony of present-day
Manitoba. At that time, the Dakotas has been acquired by the United States from Spain in the
Louisiana Purchase of 1803. However, the Catholic hierarchy in the United States did not assert authority over the area until later in the 19th century. The Bismarck area would then be under the following jurisdictions. •
Diocese of Saint Louis (1826 to 1837) •
Diocese of Dubuque (1837 to 1850) •
Diocese of Saint Paul (1850 to 1879) • Vicariate Apostolic of Dakota (1879 to 1889) •
Diocese of Jamestown (later Fargo) (1889 to 1909) The first representative of the Catholic Church in the United States to reach the Dakotas was
Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Jesuit missionary who stopped near the Missouri River in 1840 to minister to the
Mandan nation. In 1847, the Archdiocese of Quebec assigned the priest
Georges-Antoine Belcourt to Pembina as a missionary to the
Chippewa and
Métis in the Fort Pembina area. Upon arrival at Pembina, Belcourt constructed a small log cabin as a chapel, which was not large enough for all of his congregation. On August 14, 1848, Belcourt performed his first baptism in Pembina, and held a communion class for 92
Native Americans. In 1893, the
Benedictine Order established the Assumption Priory in
Devils Lake. It later became Assumption Abbey in Richardson. The first Catholic parish in
Dickinson was St. Patrick's, established in 1885 for Irish workers on the railroad.
1900 to 1951 St. Leo the Great Church in
Minot was dedicated in 1908, the first Catholic church in that town. On December 31, 1909
Pope Pius X established the Diocese of Bismarck, taking its territory from the Diocese of Fargo. He appointed
Vincent de Paul Wehrle, abbot of
Assumption Abbey, as the first bishop of the new diocese. During Wehrle's 29-year tenure, the Catholic population increased from 25,000 to 55,000. He constructed 55 churches and 18
parochial schools, and four
hospitals were established. Wehrle established 115 new congregations. He also began construction on the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Bismarck, but was forced to abandon the project due to the
Great Depression of the 1930s After Wehrle retired in 1939,
Pope Pius XII named
Vincent Ryan of Fargo as the second bishop of Bismarck. During his 11-year tenure, Ryan oversaw construction of 69 church buildings for a total cost exceeding $10 million. Ryan founded the diocesan newspaper,
Dakota Catholic Action, in 1941. During his four-year tenure, Hoch promoted vocations to the priesthood and
religious life; between 1952 and 1960, 29 priests were ordained for the diocese and 13 for Assumption Abbey in
Richardton. Hoch became bishop of the
Diocese of Sioux Falls in 1956. Hacker dedicated much of his tenure implementing the liturgical reforms from the
Second Vatican Council of the early 1960s . His tenure was marked by high enrollments in Catholic schools, as well as the founding of
Bishop Ryan High School in
Minot and
Trinity High School in Dickinson. He established an annual appeal called God's Share; between 1956 and 1963, the annual collection rose from $165,000 to $225,000. Auxiliary Bishop
Paul Zipfel of the Archdiocese of Saint Louis replaced Kinney in 1997. Zipfel retired in 2011.
Pope Benedict XVI in 2011 appointed David Kagan from the
Diocese of Rockford as the next bishop off Bismarck. In 2015, Kagan announced that the diocese was cutting ties with the
Boy Scouts of America because it allowed gay men to serve as scout leaders and volunteers. Kagan announced in 2022 that the diocese would investigate the life of
Michelle Duppong for possible
canonization. She conducted evangelical work for several years at universities and colleges in North Dakota.
Sex abuse In 2002, Bishop Zipfel introduced a
zero-tolerance policy regarding
sexual abuse allegations against priests in the diocese. Under the policy, the diocese would immediately remove any clergy accused of sexual abuse from active ministry and report them to the police for investigation. In 2019, the diocese released the names of 22 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors since 1950. In 2020, Bishop Kagan released a list of 18 diocesan clergy and four extern clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. He stated that the last substantiated case of sexual abuse had occurred in 1989. ==Bishops==