Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage–Juneau

This article has multiple issues. Please help or discuss these issues on the talk page. (Learn how and when to remove these template messages) This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) This article relies too much on references to primary sources. Please improve this by adding secondary or tertiary sources. (September 2020) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Archdiocese of Anchorage–Juneau Archidiœcesis Ancoragiensis–Junellensis
Location
Country	United States
Territory	Southern Alaska
Ecclesiastical province	Anchorage–Juneau
Statistics
Area	123,959 sq mi (321,050 km2)
Population - Total - Catholics (including non-members)	(as of 2020) 563,372 55,297 (9.8%)
Parishes	32
Schools	8
Information
Denomination	Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	September 17, 2020 (1 years ago)
Cathedral	Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral
Co-cathedral	Co-Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary
Patron saint	St. Joseph the Worker[citation needed] St. Thérèse of Lisieux[1]
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Archbishop	Andrew E. Bellisario
Bishops emeritus	Roger Lawrence Schwietz (Archbishop Emeritus of Anchorage)
Map
Website
aoaj.org

The Archdiocese of Anchorage–Juneau (Latin: Archidiœcesis Ancoragiensis–Junellensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northwestern United States, comprising several boroughs and census areas in the state of Alaska. The archdiocese is led by a prelate archbishop who serves as pastor of the mother church, Our Lady of Guadalupe Cathedral in the Municipality of Anchorage and the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the City of Juneau. The Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau is a metropolitan see, with a single suffragan diocese in its ecclesiastical province, the Diocese of Fairbanks.

History[]

Early history[]

Father John Althoff, a young Dutch priest of the Canadian Diocese of Vancouver Island, established the first permanent Catholic presence in the U. S. territory of Alaska when he founded Saint Rose of Lima Church in Wrangell on 3 May 1879. Having been assigned responsibility for missions in Alaska, Bishop Charles J. Seghers of the Diocese of Vancouver Island sent him to serve Wrangell, the Cassiar mining district on the Stikine River, and the former Russian capital of Sitka, where he would celebrate Mass in an old Russian carriage barn. Fr. Althoff subsequently moved to Juneau following the discovery of gold in the vicinity and celebrated the first mass and baptism in an interdenominational "Log Cabin Church" on 17 July 1882.^[2]

The missions continued to expand as more missionaries arrived in the region. On 27 July 1894, Pope Leo XIII erected the Prefecture Apostolic of Alaska, taking the entire territory of Alaska from two Canadian dioceses - the Diocese of Vancouver Island and the Diocese of New Westminster, with its see in Juneau.^[3]

On 22 December 1916, Pope Benedict XV elevated this jurisdiction to a vicariate apostolic.^[4] He subsequently appointed Joseph Raphael John Crimont, S.J., until then the Prefect Apostolic of Alaska, as the first Vicar Apostolic of Alaska on 15 February 1917 and as titular Titular Bishop of Ammaedara on 22 March 1917. The jurisdiction actually got its first bishop when he received episcopal ordination on 25 July 1917.

Initial formation[]

Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Juneau, taking the territory of the present Archdiocese of Anchorage–Juneau from the former Vicariate Apostolic of Alaska, on June 23, 1951.^[5] designating the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Juneau as its cathedral church. The pope concurrently changed the title of the vicariate apostolic to Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Alaska and transferred its see from Juneau to Fairbanks. On October 3, 1951, Father Dermot O'Flanagan of Holy Family Church in Anchorage was installed as the first Bishop of Juneau. He served until 1968, attending the Second Vatican Council while in office.

Separation[]

The population of the Diocese of Juneau grew to the northwest, with the city of Anchorage rising in prominence as the state's primary center of commerce and population, even though Juneau remained the state's capital. On 22 January 1966, Pope Paul VI erected the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Anchorage, taking the territory "lying west of Mount Saint Elias and Icy Bay"^[6] from the Diocese of Juneau,^[7][8] designating the Church of the Holy Family as its cathedral church.^[9] This action reduced the Diocese of Juneau to about twenty parishes and missions, plus the Shrine of St. Thérèse of Lisieux located in the midst of the Tsongas National Forest about 25 miles north of Juneau, in Alaska's Inside Passage.^[10] The pope designated the Diocese of Fairbanks, which Pope John XXIII had erected in the remaining territory of the former Vicariate Apostolic of Northern Alaska on 8 August 1962, and the Diocese of Juneau as the suffragan sees of the new metropolitan archdiocese.

Events during the period of separation[]

The Archdiocese of Anchorage hosted visits from Pope John Paul II multiple times. In 1981, he celebrated Mass on the Anchorage Park Strip before 50,000 people.

The population of the Archdiocese of Anchorage continued to grow into the third millennium, rendering the Cathedral of the Holy Family too small for major diocesan services. In consideration of the limitations of its downtown location, Archbishop Roger Schwietz petitioned the Holy See in 2013 to have Our Lady of Guadalupe Church named a co-cathedral and Holy Family maintained as the historic cathedral. The Vatican granted approval in October 2014 and Archbishop Schweitz elevated the parish church to a cathedral on its titular feast, December 12, 2014.^[11]

On 1 October 2016, Bishop Edward J. Burns of Juneau announced that the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) and its Committee on Divine Worship had designated the Shrine of Saint Thérèse of Lisieux as a National Shrine.^[12]

Reunification[]

On 19 May 2020, Pope Francis announced his intent to reunite the Archdiocese of Anchorage and the Diocese of Juneau into the Archdiocese of Anchorage–Juneau.^[13] The merger, canonically suppressing both the Diocese of Juneau and the Archdiocese of Anchorage and erecting a new metropolitan archdiocese with their combined territory^[14] (that is, the original territory of the Diocese of Juneau) and the Diocese of Fairbanks as its only suffragan, took effect at the Mass of Installation of Andrew E. Bellisario, until then Bishop of Juneau and Apostolic Administrator of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, as the first metropolitan archbishop of the new circumscription on September 17, 2020.^[15] The decree of erection simultaneously incardinated all clergy of both former jurisdictions into the new archdiocese. It also designated the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Anchorage as the primary cathedral and the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary as the Co-Cathedral of the new jurisdiction, making no mention of the (apparently former) Cathedral of the Holy Family, which, in any case, retains its dignity as the Proto-Cathedral of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

Coat of arms[]

The coat of arms of the new archdiocese "... includes elements from the arms of the previous dioceses. The horizontal line in the middle represents the horizon separating the earth from the heavens, and the wavy lines at the bottom, taken from the Juneau crest, represent the water under the dome of the sky. All of these represent the beauty of creation in the archdiocese, first inhabited by the Native peoples of Alaska. The elements above the horizon line are also taken from the Juneau crest. The constellation of the Great Bear with the North Star recalls the Alaska flag and represents the State of Alaska. The North Star, which has guided and inspired Alaskans from the earliest days, also represents the Blessed Virgin Mary, “Star of the Sea.” The crescent moon represents the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary and the first and oldest Catholic Cathedral in Alaska, located in the Capital City of Juneau. The triple-pronged anchor, taken from the crest of the Archdiocese of Anchorage, represents the virtue of hope, the Holy Trinity, and the Municipality of Anchorage, the largest in Alaska."^[16] The images to the left in the history section, above, show the respective coats of arms from which these symbols came.

Bishops[]

The bishops and archbishops and their years of service:

Bishops of Juneau[]

1. Robert Dermot O'Flanagan (1951-1968)
2. Francis Thomas Hurley (1971-1976), appointed Archbishop of Anchorage
3. Michael Hughes Kenny (1979-1995)
4. Michael William Warfel (1996-2007), appointed Bishop of Great Falls-Billings
5. Edward James Burns (2009-2017), appointed Bishop of Dallas
6. Andrew Eugene Bellisario (2017–2020), appointed Archbishop of Anchorage–Juneau

Archbishops of Anchorage[]

1. John Joseph Thomas Ryan (1966–1975), appointed Coadjutor Archbishop for the Military Services and subsequently succeeded to see
2. Francis Thomas Hurley (1976–2001)
3. Roger Lawrence Schwietz (2001–2016)^[17]
4. Paul Dennis Etienne (2016–2019), appointed Coadjutor Archbishop of Seattle^[18] and subsequently succeeded to that see

Archbishops of Anchorage–Juneau[]

1. Andrew E. Bellisario (2020–present)^[19]

Priests of the Archdiocese of Anchorage who became bishops of other dioceses[]

• Michael William Warfel, appointed Bishop of Juneau in 1996

High schools[]

• Lumen Christi Junior/Senior High School, Anchorage

Publications[]

Each former jurisdiction published a monthly newspaper prior to the merger.

• The Archdiocese published a monthly newspaper, Catholic Anchor, with approximately 11,000 subscribers. It was established in April 1999.^[20]
• The Diocese of Juneau published its newspaper, The Inside Passage, on its web site.

A FAQ published on the web site of both former dioceses^[21] soon after the announcement of the merger stated that the new archdiocese will discontinue both newspapers and inaugurate a new publication to replace them. The new Archdiocese of Anchorage-Juneau subsequently introduced a monthly publication called The North Star Catholic.

Suffragan see[]

The ecclesiastical province of Anchorage–Juneau encompasses the state of Alaska. The sole suffragan diocese is the Diocese of Fairbanks.

Before the merger took effect, the Diocese of Juneau and the Diocese of Fairbanks were suffragan dioceses of the Archdiocese of Anchorage.

See also[]

• Ecclesiastical Province of Anchorage
• List of Roman Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
• List of Roman Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
• List of Roman Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)
• List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States

References[]

External links[]

• Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Anchorage–Juneau Official Site
• Catholic Social Services Alaska

Coordinates: 61°13′11″N 149°52′44″W / 61.21972°N 149.87889°W / 61.21972; -149.87889