Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison

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Diocese of Madison

Diœcesis Madisonensis
Holy Name Seminary, Madison, WI.JPG
Bishop O'Connor Catholic Pastoral Center
CoA Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison.svg
Coat of arms
Flag of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison.svg
Flag
Location
Country United States
TerritoryCounties of Columbia, Dane, Grant, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jefferson, Lafayette, Marquette, Rock and Sauk, Wisconsin
Ecclesiastical provinceMilwaukee
Statistics
Area8,070 sq mi (20,900 km2)
Population
- Total
- Catholics (including non-members)		(as of 2020)
1,068,466
166,923 (16%)
Parishes102[1]
Schools46[2]
Information
DenominationCatholic
Sui iuris churchLatin Church
RiteRoman Rite
EstablishedJanuary 9, 1946 (75 years ago)
CathedralSaint Raphael's Cathedral
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
BishopDonald J. Hying
Metropolitan ArchbishopJerome Listecki
Map
Diocese of Madison (Wisconsin) map 1.jpg
Website
madisondiocese.org

The Diocese of Madison (Latin: Diœcesis Madisonensis) is a Roman Catholic diocese in the U.S. State of Wisconsin. It comprises of Columbia, Dane, Grant, Green, Green Lake, Iowa, Jefferson, Lafayette, Marquette, Rock, and Sauk counties. The area of the diocese is approximately 8,070 square miles (20,900 km2). There are approxamatly 167,000 Catholics in the Diocese. The Bishop of the Diocese of Madison is Donald J. Hying.[3] The Metropolitan is Jerome Listecki, Archbishop of Milwaukee.

There are 102 parishes in the diocese,[4] with 98 priests in active ministry.[5]

The Cathedral was Saint Raphael's Cathedral in Madison, but was destroyed by fire in 2005. The diocese currently has no cathedral. Parishioners of the Cathedral currently congregate at St. Patrick's and Holy Redeemer Parishes in Downtown Madison.

Camp Gray, a summer camp and retreat center, is one of the ministries of the Diocese of Madison.

History[]

Early years[]

The Diocese of Madison was established on January 9, 1946, by Pope Pius XII, in a decree dated December 22, 1945. The diocese was created out of territory from the Archdiocese of Milwaukee,the Diocese of La Crosse and the Diocese of Green Bay.[6]

Venerable Father Samuel Charles Mazzuchelli was actively involved in the southwestern part of Wisconsin during the mid 19th century. He established 25 parishes in Wisconsin, 11 of which are in the Madison Diocese. Fr. Mazzuchelli is buried in Benton, Wisconsin, which is in the diocese. Pope John Paul II declared him venerable in 1993. The case for Fr. Mazzuchelli's elevation to the Sainthood is still pending.

Cathedral fire[]

St. Raphael's Cathedral, Madison just after the 2005 fire.
Main article: Saint Raphael's Cathedral, Madison, Wisconsin

On March 14, 2005. St. Raphael's Cathedral was heavily damaged in a fire that caused extensive damage to the church. In the days following the fire, it was found out that William J. "Billy" Connell had started fire. Connell was charged with burglary, arson, and bail jumping, but was deemed incompetent to stand trial due to paranoid schizophrenia. He was committed to an institution on August 29, 2005, pending a change in his mental health status,[7] and in June 2007, was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 15 years of close supervision.

Following the fire, the options regarding the future of the Cathedral included:

  • Rebuild the Cathedral at the current site. Those in favor of that plan cited the historical significance of the parish as a reason for rebuilding the structure.
  • Build a new Cathedral at another location in Madison, such as on the city's west side. People in favor of that cited the fact that St. Raphael's was not intended to be a Cathedral when built. Previous Bishops had considering building a new Cathedral elsewhere in Madison, as there was no room downtown to build a larger Cathedral church.

In June 2007, a decision was reached to erect a new building on the site of the old Cathedral, replacing the structure that was damaged in the fire. The new building will have a different floor plan than the previous building and be capable of seating approximately 1,000 people. It will reuse the steeple and other items that can be salvaged from the original building.

As of 2021, no new building has been erected on the former site.

Reports of sex abuse[]

In June 2019, the Diocese of Madison agreed to present a list of credibly accused clergy who served in the Diocese and hired detectives to assist in this investigation.[8] This agreement came after a retired priest was charged in May 2018 with six counts of sexual assault.[8] The retired priest, Fr. William Nolan, was later acquitted in September 2019 of five of these counts,[9] with the presiding judge also dropping the remaining count.[10] The Diocese of Madison also investigated Nolan and later cleared him from the title of "credibly accused" priest in March 2020 as well.[11]

Recent[]

During Robert C. Morlino's term, the number of seminarians in the diocese grew from six men in 2003, to 30 by 2015. A diocesan-wide capital campaign was initiated to raise $30 million to help educate the future priests.[12][13]

Bishops[]

Bishops of Madison[]

  1. William Patrick O'Connor (1946–1967), his resignation.
  2. Cletus F. O'Donnell (1967–1992), his resignation.
  3. William H. Bullock (1993–2003), his resignation.
  4. Robert C. Morlino (2003–2018), his death.
  5. Donald J. Hying (2019–present).

Auxiliary Bishops[]

Priests who became Bishops[]

Parishes[]

Cemeteries[]

  • Resurrection Cemetery

Resurrection Cemetery is a Roman Catholic cemetery located on the near west side in Madison, Wisconsin, the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison. The cemetery is one of four cemeteries officially managed by the diocese. It was founded in 1949 and is about 40 acres in size. Famous people whose resting place in Resurrection Cemetery include Madison native Chris Farley, comedic film star and Saturday Night Live cast member, whose crypt is located in the chapel on the cemetery grounds. The first two bishops of the diocese, William O'Connor and Cletus O'Donnell, are buried in the cemetery.

Schools[]

High schools[]

Grade schools[]

  • St. Joseph's Catholic School in Baraboo is a parochial school. The current school building, designed by the Wisconsin Rapids company Billmeyer and Sons and with a cost of over $500,000, has 11 classrooms. The basement has a cafeteria and a combination auditorium/gymnasium. The second building for the school opened on a filled-in ravine in 1912, northeast of its associated church. The building had three floors and a basement. The first and second floors each had three classrooms, and the second floor also housed the chapel and the library. The third floor had a 600-seat auditorium while the basement had a large banquet hall/gymnasium. The second building became overcrowded due to the post-World War II baby boom, so the third school building, north of the second building, opened in 1958.[14]

See also[]

  • List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
  • List of Roman Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
  • List of Roman Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)

References[]

  1. ^ "Our Parishes". Diocese of Madison.
  2. ^ "Schools". Diocese of Madison.
  3. ^ Dolan, Bill (April 25, 2019), "Bishop Hying leaves Gary to become bishop in Wisconsin's state capital", The Times, Gary, Indiana, retrieved April 25, 2019
  4. ^ "Our Parishes". Diocese of Madison.
  5. ^ "All Priests in the Diocese". Diocese of Madison.
  6. ^ "Diocese of Madison". Catholic-Hierarchy.org. David M. Cheney. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
  7. ^ https://web.archive.org/web/20051206145401/http://www.channel3000.com/fire/4907849/detail.html. Archived from the original on December 6, 2005. Retrieved September 2, 2006. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  8. ^ a b Verburg, Steven. "Madison Catholic Diocese hires detectives to probe clergy sexual abuse". madison.com.
  9. ^ "Retired Catholic priest found not guilty of sexual assault". 14 September 2019.
  10. ^ Redman, Henry. "Nolan testifies as defense rests its case". Daily Jefferson County Union.
  11. ^ Schultz, Frank. "Priest accused of sex abuse cleared by Madison Diocese". GazetteXtra.
  12. ^ 608-252-6149, DOUG ERICKSON derickson@madison.com. "As number of seminarians surges, Madison diocese seeks $30M to fund priest training".CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "Priests For Our Future Capital Campaign". Diocese of Madison.
  14. ^ Sauk County Historical Society. Baraboo. Arcadia Publishing, 2017. ISBN 1467125105, 9781467125109. p. 84.

External links[]

Arms[]

Coat of arms of Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison
CoA Roman Catholic Diocese of Madison.svg
Notes
Arms was designed and adopted when the diocese was erected
Adopted
1946
Escutcheon
The arms of the diocese are composed of a field that is wavy bars of silver (white) and blue on which a red cross with a fish is present
Symbolism
The arms of the diocese are composed of a field that is wavy bars of silver (white) and blue. This is the traditional heraldic representation for water and the field of "water" is divided by a red cross into four sections to remind us of the lakes of the region around Madison. On the red cross is a fish and this conjunction of symbols is a classic symbolic representation for Saint Raphael, the titular of the Cathedral Church of Madison. Raphael means "healer of God" and his ministrations to men make interesting reading in the Book of Tobit in the Old Testament. The fish recalls the episode where Raphael ordered Tobias to cook a fish to eat but removed the heart, liver and gall for future medicinal use. Later the liver was used by Tobias to drive out the devil, who had slain seven of the previous husbands of Sara, his wife, while the gall was used to restore sight to his blind father.

Coordinates: 43°03′04″N 89°31′06″W / 43.05111°N 89.51833°W / 43.05111; -89.51833

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