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Home  / News & Publications /  Michigan Catholic News / 2008 /  Archdiocese celebrates 175 years of progress, leaders and changes

by Kristin Lukowski of The Michigan Catholic
Published May 2, 2008

Detroit — The Archdiocese of Detroit has had an interesting history over its 175 years as a diocese — and even before that.

As what is now Michigan was being settled, the early 19th century saw a large influx of people, largely because of the expansion of the opening of the Erie Canal. Michigan was part of the diocese of Bardstown, Ky., until 1821, when Michigan Territory became part of the new Diocese of Cincinnati, with Bishop Edward Dominic Fenwick as its ordinary.

Fr. Norman DuKette, first African-American priest in the Diocese of Detroit, was ordained Feb. 7, 1926. He was the fifth African-American man to be ordained in the U.S.

Pioneer priest Fr. Gabriel Richard reported five years later that Michigan Territory included about 7,000 Catholic faithful, most of whom were French settlers or Native American converts, with a strong Irish contingent. By the end of 1830 there were eight priests in the whole of Michigan Territory, including one priest, Fr. Samuel Mazuchelli, OP, who covered both Mackinac Island and Green Bay, Wisc. — quite a commute.

Detroit was actually named a diocese in March 1827, with Fr. Richard its first ordinary — but that Bull was never implemented, and Fr. Richard died five years later of the cholera epidemic. Finally, Detroit was made a diocese in 1833, with Bishop Frederick Rese as its ordinary and St. Anne its cathedral.

The diocese included what is now Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa and Minnesota, as well as parts of North and South Dakota, east of the Mississippi. It was all Bishop Rese's jurisdiction until 1837, when Michigan became a state and the Diocese of Detroit lost territory to the Diocese of Dubuque. It lost even more territory with establishment of the Diocese of Milwaukee in 1843. The Upper Peninsula was made a vicariate apostolic in 1853.

Photos from Archdiocese of Detroit archives Most Holy Trinity, in the area now known as Corktown. On Dec. 25, 1875, it celebrated the first Mass lit by electric lights in the U.S.

By 1838 there were 30 priests, and anywhere from 20,000 to 24,000 Catholics, with 3,000 converted Native Americans, about 8,000 English, Irish, German and American-born, and the rest French.

Bishop Rese resigned in 1840, and Fr. Peter Paul Lefevere, who had come from Belgium only eight years earlier to minister in Missouri, was named administrator. When Bishop Lefevere was named ordinary of Detroit in 1841, there were 18 priests, 30 churches and 24,000 Catholics in Michigan. By 1848, Bishop Lefevere had built a new cathedral, SS. Peter and Paul on Jefferson Ave. (now a Jesuit-run parish). He led the diocese for 28 years, helping guide it from a pioneer settlement to a more structured diocese. He died in 1869 and was buried at SS. Peter and Paul.

Bishop Henry Borgess was installed in 1870 after serving as chancellor of the Diocese of Cincinnati. That year, there were 88 priests, 80 churches and 150,000 Catholics, with many new Catholics around Grand Rapids and Saginaw. Several religious communities came into the diocese under Bishop Borgess' leadership, and the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe, were formed.

Ste. Anne de Detroit Church, shown in 1840. The parish was founded on July 26, 1701, and fire destroyed the first church building on Oct. 5, 1703. When Detroit was made a diocese in 1833, this church was made the cathedral.

Bishop Borgess laid the cornerstone for SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary in 1885, which later moved to Orchard Lake and continues to train Polish men for the priesthood. Also, under his leadership, many ethnic parishes were founded: St. Wenceslaus in 1871 for Bohemians; St. Albertus in 1871 for Poles; and Our Lady of Sorrows in 1884 for Belgians, to name just a few. It was also under Bishop Borgess, in 1872, that the predecessor to The Michigan Catholic, the Western Home Journal, was first published.

Between 1869 and 1883 the number of churches in the northwest Lower Peninsula, still a part of the Diocese of Detroit, increased from 13 to 32, mostly because of lumber and fertile land. The Diocese of Grand Rapids was established in 1882, and this left the Diocese of Detroit with 29 counties, 18,558 square miles, 85 priests, 100,455 Catholics, and 42 parochial schools with 9,832 students.

Bishop Borgess resigned in 1887, and died three years later; Bishop John Samuel Foley was installed as Bishop Borgess' successor in 1888. Under his 30-year episcopate, the Catholic population grew from 120,000 to 386,000, largely because of immigrants looking for work in the automotive industry.

San Francesco, the first parish for Italians, was founded in 1899, and was followed by parishes for Slovaks, Lithuanians, Hungarians and Romanians, among others. In 1890, the original St. Patrick Church on John R and Adelaide was designated as the cathedral and was renamed SS. Peter and Paul. It held this title until 1937 when the diocese was made an archdiocese and Blessed Sacrament Church was designated as the new cathedral and St. Patrick Church reverted to its original name. (The original SS. Peter and Paul on Jefferson had been placed in the care of the Jesuits in 1877.)

Priests and Bishop Michael J. Gallagher gather for a dinner at the St. Joseph Retreat House in 1935.

The first Eastern Rite parish was established in 1908, the Ukrainian -Byzantine St. John the Baptist Parish on Detroit's west side.

The early part of the 20th century also saw more religious communities in the area, such as the Cloistered Dominican Nuns, the Sisters of Bon Secours, and the Sisters of Mercy, joining long–established communities such as the Adrian Dominican Sisters, the Sisters of St. Joseph and Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.

In 1911, Detroit got its first auxiliary bishop, Bishop Edward Kelly, who served for eight years until he was appointed ordinary of Grand Rapids. When Bishop Foley died in 1918, the diocese had 318 priests in 246 parishes and missions, and 102 parish schools. Also under his leadership, the first black Catholic parish was established in 1911.

Bishop Michael James Gallagher was installed in 1918, having come from Grand Rapids; during his leadership, he addressed the multicultural issues of Detroit — of the 105 parishes founded under his leadership, 33 of them spoke foreign languages. Parish schools doubled in number and enrollment, and Sacred Heart Seminary was founded in 1919, with the current building finished in 1924. When Bishop Gallagher died in 1937, there were more than 800 priests ministering to 602,000 Catholics in 345 parishes and 201 parish schools.

Bishop Gallagher was succeeded by Bishop Edward Mooney in 1937, and under Pope Pius XI Detroit was established as an archdiocese, making Bishop Mooney Archbishop Mooney. In 1938, the Blessed Sacrament Church was designated a cathedral, though it wasn't until Nov. 17, 1951, that the finished building was consecrated.

Archbishop Mooney refinanced the debt accumulated with the population boom of the 1920s that was a burden during the depression, and founded the Archdiocesan Development Fund, now Catholic Services Appeal. He was named a cardinal in 1946 by Pope Pius XII. The number of elementary schools doubled in the 1940s, and Mercy College and Madonna College opened their doors then, too.

Cardinal Mooney died in 1958, and he was succeeded by Archbishop John Dearden, who had been bishop of Pittsburgh. Archbishop Dearden built a new high school building on the Sacred Heart Seminary grounds, facilities for the aging and mentally disabled, and a student exchange program. It was also during Archbishop Dearden's leadership that the pope called the Second Vatican Council, so much of his leadership included making changes to the liturgy and ministries because of that.

He organized the Michigan Catholic Conference, the public policy arm of the Church, in 1963. Archbishop Dearden was elevated to cardinal in 1969, and was later elected as the first president to the reorganized National Council of Catholic Bishops.

It was also during Cardinal Dearden's leadership that parishes in the suburbs flourished, extraordinary ministers of the Eucharist were introduced, and the first class of permanent deacons was ordained in 1971. However, it was also during that time that seminary enrollment and vocations dropped dramatically, and 125 Catholic schools closed between 1968 and 1972. Two new dioceses, Gaylord and Kalamazoo, were created in 1971, which left the Archdiocese of Detroit with the geographical makeup it has today.

Archbishop Dearden resigned on July 15, 1980 and was followed by Archbishop Edmund Szoka who came from the Diocese of Gaylord in 1981. Among Archbishop Szoka's accomplishments were to reorganize the ADF into Catholic Services Appeal, which in its first year generated $9 million. In 1983, Bishop Moses E. Anderson, SSE, was the first African-American auxiliary bishop to be ordained to Detroit.

In 1987, Pope John Paul II visited Hamtramck, Detroit and Pontiac during his pastoral visit to North America. Cardinal Dearden died in 1988; that same year, Archbishop Szoka was named to the College of Cardinals. In 1989, the Detroit Church saw significant change, as 31 parishes closed due to populations shifting to the suburban areas.

Cardinal Szoka was appointed in 1990 to the Prefecture of Economic Affairs of the Holy See in Rome, and that same year, Green Bay Bishop Adam Joseph Maida was named archbishop of Detroit. Archbishop Maida was elevated to the College of Cardinals in 1994.

In 1995, Fr. Solanus Casey, a Capuchin priest who served for years as the porter of the Capuchin monastery in Detroit, was declared venerable, the first step toward canonization. The cause for his sainthood continues even today. Also that year, the St. John's Center for Youth and Family is opened at the former St. John Provincial Seminary in Plymouth Township.

In 1996, Pope John Paul II blessed the cornerstone for the Pope John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington, D.C. The center was built as a place where people of different faiths could come together for dialogue, as was the case when Pope Benedict XVI visited in April and used the center as a place for people of many religions to come together.

The Roman Catholic Church of Detroit celebrated the 300th anniversary of the city in 2001.

Sources: "A Condensed History of the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese of Detroit," by Msgr. Francis X. Canfield, www.aodline.org, Michigan Catholic files.