Roman Catholic Diocese of Cheyenne

As part of the Louisiana Purchase, the area was theoretically under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of Louisiana and the Two Floridas in New Orleans. In 1827, it was placed under the Bishop of St. Louis. On 5 July 1840, Jesuit missionary Pierre-Jean De Smet offered the first Mass in Wyoming, a mile east of Daniel, a town in the west-central part of the present state. A monument to the event was later erected on this site.[1] Lake De Smet is named after him. [2]

In 1851, John Baptist Miège was installed, in a ceremony in St. Louis, as Vicar Apostolic for the Indian Territory east of the Rocky Mountains. The vicariate included the present states of Kansas, Nebraska, Oklahoma, that part of North and South Dakota west of the Missouri River, Wyoming, Montana, and a part of Colorado. [3]

On January 6, 1857 Pope Pius IX established the Apostolic Vicariate of Nebraska from the Apostolic Vicariate of Indian Territory (East of the Rocky Mountains).[4] In 1859, James Myles O'Gorman O.C.S.O., prior of New Melleray Abbey, near Dubuque, Iowa, was named Vicar Apostolic. In the autumn of 1867, Bishop O'Gorman assigned Rev. William Kelly as the first resident priest of Cheyenne. Kelly's remit included visiting the railroad camps west of the town.[5] Eugene Cusson, S.J., was the first resident priest in Laramie. In 1875, he persuaded the Sisters of Charity of Leavenworth to come to Laramie, where they opened a hospital in a house donated by the Union Pacific Railroad.[6] In 1884, the Jesuits established St. Stephens Mission on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

The Nebraska vicariate was elevated to a diocese and renamed as the Diocese of Omaha by Pope Leo XIII on October 2, 1885. At the time, the diocese included all of Nebraska and Wyoming. On August 2, 1887, Pope Leo XIII erected the Diocese of Cheyenne from territory that had been a part of the Diocese of Omaha.[5]

In June 2019, the Diocese of Cheyenne released the names of 11 priests who were accused of committing acts of sex abuse while serving in the Diocese.[7] Gerald Chleborad, an accused former Jackson priest who was transferred to Colorado in at least the early 2000s, had previously been arrested in Wyoming in 1995 for displaying public lewdness and had been accused of molesting children in the Diocese of Cheyenne between 1984 and 1985 and between 1995 and 2003 as well.[8] In July 2019, Bishop Steven Biegler acknowledged in a handwritten statement the history of sex abuse in the Diocese of Cheyenne and apologized.[9] In August 2019, Cheyenne police recommended criminal charges be filed against former Bishop Joseph Hart.[10] Pope Francis had authorized a canonical penal process against Hart by June 2019 as well.[11]

The original list of "credibly accused clergy" included 30 victims, 29 of whom were male and female minors,[12] with more victims coming out in August 2019 as well.[12] Hart's successor David Ricken, who wrote a letter defending Hart and who was later made Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay, has also come under scrutiny for quite possibly obstructing a previous criminal investigation against Hart which occurred in 2002.[13]

1. Maurice Francis Burke (1887-1893), appointed Bishop of Saint Joseph
2. Thomas Mathias Lenihan (1896-1901)
3. James Keane (1902-1911), appointed Archbishop of Dubuque
4. Patrick McGovern (1912-1951)
5. Hubert Newell (1951-1978)
6. Joseph Hubert Hart (1978-2001)
7. David L. Ricken (2001-2008; coadjutor bishop 2000-2001), appointed Bishop of Green Bay
8. Paul D. Etienne (2009-2016), appointed Archbishop of Anchorage
9. Steven Biegler (2017–present)

• Joseph Hubert Hart (1976-1978), appointed Bishop of Cheyenne (see above)