Roman Catholic Diocese of Dodge City

Diocese of Dodge City Dioecesis Dodgepolis
Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Coat of arms
Location
Country	United States
Territory	28 counties in Southwest Kansas
Ecclesiastical province	Province of Kansas City in Kansas
Population - Catholics	60,554 (27.2%)
Information
Denomination	Catholic
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	May 19, 1951
Cathedral	Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe
Patron saint	Our Lady of Guadalupe John the Baptist
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	John Balthasar Brungardt
Metropolitan Archbishop	Joseph Fred Naumann
Bishops emeritus	Ronald Michael Gilmore Stanley Girard Schlarman
Map
Website
dcdiocese.org

The Diocese of Dodge City (Latin: Dioecesis Dodgepolis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in southwestern Kansas in the United States. Pope Pius XII created the diocese on May 19, 1951.

The Diocese of Dodge City is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.^[1]

John B. Brungardt was appointed Bishop of Dodge City in December 2010.

The Catholic Diocese of Dodge City comprises the following Kansas counties: Barber, Barton, Clark, Comanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearny, Kiowa, Lane, Meade, Morton, Ness, Pawnee, Pratt, Rush, Scott, Seward, Stafford, Stanton, Stevens, and Wichita.^[2]

In 1850, Pope Pius IX erected the Apostolic Vicariate of Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains. This vicariate covered all of the Missouri Territory, which then included the Kansas region.^[3] Seven years later, Pius IX create a separate Apostolic Vicariate of Kansas, covering the newly created Kansas Territory.^[4] The first resident pastor within the Wichita area was appointed in 1873.

The Diocese of Leavenworth, covering all of Kansas, was erected in 1877 by Pius IX. He named Reverend Louis Mary Fink as its first bishop.^[4] Kansas grew so rapidly over the next ten years that Fink petitioned the Vatican to establish two new dioceses in the western part of the state. In 1887, Pope Leo XIII created two dioceses out of western Kansas. The northern counties became the Diocese of Concordia and the southern counties the Diocese of Wichita.^[5] The Dodge City area remained part of the Diocese of Wichita for the next 64 years

In 1951, Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Dodge City, taking its territory from the Diocese of Wichita.^[6] He named Monsignor John Baptist Franz from the Diocese of Alton as the first bishop of Dodge City.^[7] At that time, Sacred Heart Church in Dodge City became the diocesan cathedral. Pope John XXIII named Franz as bishop of the Diocese of Peoria in 1959.^[7]

In 1960, Monsignor Marion Forst of the Archdiocese of St. Louis was appointed as the second bishop of Dodge City by John XXIII.^[8] During his tenure, he established the following new offices and ministries:

• Catholic Social Service
• The Office of Religious Education
• The Family Life Office
• Religious Education for the Handicapped
• The Southwest Kansas Register diocesan newspaper
• The Office of Mexican American Affairs
• The Youth/Young Adults Office^[9]

Pope Paul VI named Forst as auxiliary bishop of the Diocese of Kansas City in 1976.

To replace Forst, Monsignor Eugene Gerber from the Diocese of Wichita was appointed the third bishop of Dodge City by Paul VI in 1976. In 1982, Pope John Paul II named Gerber as bishop of Wichita.^[10] In 1983, John Paul II appointed Auxiliary Bishop Stanley Girard Schlarman of the Diocese of Belleville as the fourth bishop of Dodge City.^[11] During his tenure in Dodge City, Schlarman recruited Burmese, Filipino, and Vietnamese priests; established a diocesan vocations office, a pastoral council, and an office of aging and parenting; and promoted the pastoral ministry training program and Cursillo movement.^[12] Schlarman retired in 1998.

Monsignor Ronald Michael Gilmore of the Diocese of Wichita was named bishop of Dodge City by John Paul II in 1998.^[13] A new cathedral, the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, was consecrated in 2001. Our Lady of Guadalupe is the patroness of the diocese.^[14] Gilmore retired in 2010.

As of 2023, the bishop of the Diocese of Dodge City is John Brungardt from Wichita. He was named by Pope Benedict XVI in 2010.

In February 2019, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation (KBI) announced that it had been investigating sex abuse allegations against all the Catholic dioceses in Kansas since November 2018. On August 14, 2020, KBI spokeswoman Melissa Underwood stated, "As of Aug. 7, we have had 205 reports of abuse and have opened 120 cases."^[15]

In October 2019, the diocese released a list of ten priests and two seminarians with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.^[16]

In February 2021, the KBI notified Bishop Brungardt that he was under investigation for sexual abuse of a minor. Denying the accusations, he immediately suspended his episcopal duties and the Vatican instructed Archbishop Joseph Fred Naumann to start a canonical investigation.^[17] Bishop Gerald Lee Vincke from the Diocese of Salina was appointed as apostolic administrator to run the diocese during the investigation.^[18] The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome cleared Brungardt of the accusation against him in March 2022. There were no criminal charges.^[19]

The Diocese of Dodge City encompasses 23,000 square miles and 50 parishes in 28 counties.^[6]

• John Baptist Franz (1951-1959), appointed Bishop of Peoria
• Marion Francis Forst (1960-1976), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Kansas City in Kansas
• Eugene John Gerber (1976-1982), appointed Bishop of Wichita
• Stanley Girard Schlarman (1983-1998)
• Ronald Michael Gilmore (1998-2010)
• John Balthasar Brungardt (2011–present)

• Catholic Church hierarchy
• List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States
• Sacred Heart Cathedral, Dodge City, former Cathedral

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Dodge City Official Site

37°45′35″N 100°01′06″W / 37.75972°N 100.01833°W / 37.75972; -100.01833