The Diocese of San Angelo (, ) is a

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ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the

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in Central and

West Texas West Texas is a loosely defined region in the U.S. state of Texas, generally encompassing the desert climate, arid and semiarid climate, semiarid lands west of a line drawn between the cities of Wichita Falls, Texas, Wichita Falls, Abilene, Texa ...

in the United States. It is a

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandr ...

in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan

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. The Diocese of San Angelo was founded on October 16, 1961. As of 2023, Michael J. Sis is the bishop.

Description

Encompassing some , the Diocese of San Angelo comprises the following 29 counties:

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Brown Brown is a color. It can be considered a composite color, but it is mainly a darker shade of orange. In the CMYK color model used in printing and painting, brown is usually made by combining the colors Orange (colour), orange and black. In the ...

, Callahan, Coke,

Coleman Coleman may refer to: Places Antarctica * Coleman Glacier (Antarctica) * Coleman Peak, Ross Island Canada * Coleman, Alberta * Coleman, Ontario * Coleman, Prince Edward Island United Kingdom * Coleman, Leicester, England United States * C ...

, Concho, Crane, Crockett, Ector, Glasscock,

Howard Howard is a masculine given name derived from the English surname Howard. ''The Oxford Dictionary of English Christian Names'' notes that "the use of this surname as a christian name is quite recent and there seems to be no particular reason for ...

, Irion, Kimble,

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, McCulloch, Menard, Midland, Mitchell, Nolan, Pecos, Reagan, Runnels, Schleicher, Sterling,

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, Terrell,

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, and Upton. The major cities in the diocese are Abilene, Big Spring, Brownwood, Fort Stockton, Midland, Odessa,

San Angelo San Angelo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Tom Green County, Texas, United States. Its location is in the Concho Valley, a region of West Texas between the Permian Basin (North America), Permian Basin to the northwest, Chihuahuan Desert ...

, and Sweetwater.

History

1600 to 1800

During the 17th century,

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

was a province in the Spanish Empire. The first Catholic presence in the region was the visit of the missionaries Alonso de Benavides and Juan Salas to the

Jumanos The Jumanos were a tribe or several tribes, who inhabited a large area of western Texas, New Mexico, and northern Mexico, especially near the Junta de los Rios region with its large settled Indigenous population. They lived in the Big Bend area ...

people in 1629. The two priests celebrated the first mass in the area. In 1757, the Mission Santa Cruz de San Sabá was established by Father Alonso Giraldo de Terreros in present-day Menard County. The purpose of the mission was to evangelize the

Lipan Apache people Lipan Apache are a band of Apache, a Southern Athabaskan Indigenous people, who have lived in the Southwest and Southern Plains for centuries. At the time of European and African contact, they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, Oklahoma, Texas, and ...

. Although the Apaches never visited the mission, its construction convinced the

Comanche people The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...

that the Spanish were allying with them. In 1758, the Comanches and their allies attacked the mission, killing de Terreros and burning it down.Weber (1992), p. 189.

1800 to 1900

After passing to Mexican control, Texas became an independent republic in 1836. In 1845, it joined the United States. After the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861May 26, 1865; also known by Names of the American Civil War, other names) was a civil war in the United States between the Union (American Civil War), Union ("the North") and the Confederate States of A ...

ended in 1865, a new Catholic mission was founded in 1867 at Ben Ficklin, Texas, to serve US Army troops stationed at the new

Fort Concho Fort Concho is a former United States Army installation and National Historic Landmark District located in San Angelo, Texas. It was established in November 1867 at the confluence of the North and South Concho Rivers, on the routes of the Butte ...

. In Abilene, a Catholic mission was established in the 1880s; it became Sacred Heart Church in 1891. One of the oldest churches in the region is St. Joseph's in Stanton, founded in 1882.

1900 to present

Pope John XXIII Pope John XXIII (born Angelo Giuseppe Roncalli; 25 November 18813 June 1963) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 28 October 1958 until his death on 3 June 1963. He is the most recent pope to take ...

erected the Diocese of San Angelo on October 16, 1961. Most of its territory of the new diocese came primarily from the Diocese of Amarillo, but it received several counties from the Dioceses of

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, El Paso and Dallas-Fort Worth. According to legend, one reason the pope chose San Angelo as the

episcopal see An episcopal see is the area of a bishop's ecclesiastical jurisdiction. Phrases concerning actions occurring within or outside an episcopal see are indicative of the geographical significance of the term, making it synonymous with ''diocese'' ...

was that his first name was Angelo. According to Bishop Michael Pfeifer:

The Church was growing here in a good way, a lot of people were coming into the church and felt it would be good to have a separate diocese. Plus, that was an extreme amount of territory for one bishop in Amarillo to cover — it's 450 miles from Amarillo to Junction.

John XXIII in 1961 selected Reverend Thomas Drury of Amarillo as the first bishop of San Angelo. Four years later, Drury became bishop of the Diocese of Corpus Christi. The second bishop of San Angelo was Reverend Thomas Tschoepe of the Diocese of Dallas, named by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

in 1966. Three years later, Tschoepe was installed as bishop of Dallas. Auxiliary Bishop Stephen Leven of the

was appointed bishop of San Angelo by

in 1969 Credited with making the Diocese of San Angelo financially solvent, Leven resolved several long-standing financial problems that were burdening the diocese. He also initiated the

permanent diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

program, which ordained over sixty men. Leven retired in 1979. To replace Leven,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed Monsignor Joseph Fiorenza of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston as the next bishop of San Angelo in 1979. He became Archbishop of Galveston-Houston in 1984.In 1985, John Paul II named Reverend Michael Pfeifer as the next bishop of San Angelo. After 28 years as bishop, Pfeifer retired in 2013. Reverend Michael Sis from the Diocese of Austin was appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2013.

Sex abuse

In 2008, Bishop Pfeifer and the Diocese of San Angelo were sued by a San Angelo man. The plaintiff claimed that Reverend David Espitia of St. Ann's Parish in Colorado City had

sexually abused Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is r ...

him from 1994, when he was age eight, to 2002, and that the diocese covered up the crimes. In response, Pfeifer said that Espita had told him about the allegations and had denied all of them in 2003. Pfeifer initiated an investigation at that time. A week after his meeting with Pfeifer, Espita committed suicide. The diocese reached an out-of-court settlement with the plaintiff in 2011. The 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report on sexual abuse by clergy included a section on the transfer of Reverend Thomas C. Kelley from the Diocese of Erie in Pennsylvania, to the Diocese of San Angelo, despite a record of sexual abuse of young men. Five young Pennsylvania men had accused Kelley of making sexual advances towards them, either at a high school or in the seminary. The Diocese of Erie negotiated a financial settlement with one victim and sent Kelley out of town for treatment twice. Both of Kelley's treatment facilities released him with recommendations that he have no contact with young parishioners. In 1995, Kelley requested a transfer to San Angelo. Pfeifer then talked to Erie Bishop Donald Walter Trautman about Kelley's record. Despite this conversation, Pfeiffer agreed to Kelley's transfer to Texas without any restrictions. During Kelley's ten years in San Angelo, there were no allegations of abuse filed against him; he died in 2005. Pfeifer refused in 2018 to comment on the Kelley story. Bishop Sis later said he felt hurt and angry about the Kelley allegations. In January 2019, the Diocese of San Angelo published a list of 12 priests and one deacon with credible accusations of sexual abuse of children. One of those listed had died in prison, while two others were laicized and five removed from ministry. The accused clergy who weren't disciplined are deceased.

Bishops

Bishops of San Angelo

# Thomas Joseph Drury (1961–1965), appointed Bishop of Corpus Christi # Thomas Ambrose Tschoepe (1966–1969), appointed Bishop of Dallas #

Stephen Aloysius Leven Stephen Aloysius Leven (April 30, 1905 – June 28, 1983) was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Roman Catholic Diocese of San Angelo, Bishop of San Angelo from 1969 to 1979. Biography Early life and education St ...

(1969–1979) # Joseph Anthony Fiorenza (1979–1984), appointed Bishop and later Archbishop of Galveston-Houston # Michael David Pfeifer (1985–2013) # Michael Sis (2014–present)