In 1776 the expedition of two Spanish
Franciscan priests generated the first heartbeat of
Catholicism in Utah. Francisco Atanazio Dominguez and
Silvestre V. de Escalante left Santa Fe in search of
an overland route to Monterey. They circled northward
through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona before returning
to New Mexico, the first known non-Native Americans
to enter the land that became Utah. Traveling without
military escort, they bridged the cultures of white
man and Native American and drew the first maps ever
made of Utah. A thirty-seven-foot steel cross stands
today in Spanish Fork Canyon to mark their entry into
Utah Valley on 23 September 1776.
At the turn of the century, in the
era of the mountain men, Catholic hunters and trappers
who cut trails across Utah included Antoine Leroux,
the five Sublette brothers, and Lucien Fontenelle. Etienne
Provost is believed to be the first non-Native American
to view the Great Salt Lake. Thomas Fitzpatrick of the
Rocky Mountain Fur Company became the first government
agent for Indian tribes. Jean Batiste Chalifoux in 1835,
Antoine Robidoux in 1837, and Denis Julien in 1831 and
1836 recorded their presence in Utah in petroglyphs
carved in rock near their campsites. The cross etched
in stone by Kit Carson in 1843 can still be seen on
Fremont Island in the Great Salt Lake.
In 1850 the Holy See in Rome assigned
ecclesiastical responsibility for Utah Territory to
the Diocese of Monterey but altered diocesan boundaries
in 1853, placing Utah under the Archdiocese of San Francisco,
whose domain extended eastward to the Colorado River.
By 1866, however, the care of Utah was shifted to the
Vicariate of Marysville, which later became the Diocese
of Grass Valley. A Vicariate of Colorado-Utah formed
in 1868 proved too extensive to cover, and in 1870 jurisdiction
over Utah reverted once again to San Francisco.
During this period of administrative
uncertainty, missionaries Father Jean Batiste Raverdy
from Santa Fe and Father Toussaint Mesplie from the
Archdiocese of Oregon City visited Utah. Bonaventure
Keller of Philadelphia offered the first known mass
in Utah in July 1859 at Camp Floyd. Father Edward Kelly
came from San Francisco in 1866 and purchased the first
Catholic Church property in Utah. Bishop Joseph P. Machebeuf
and Father John V. Foley journeyed to Salt Lake from
Colorado in 1868 and 1870 respectively.
The heartbeat of Catholicism in Utah
strengthened with an influx of miners and railroad workers
drawn by the discovery of mineral wealth in 1863 and
the completion of the transcontinental railroad in 1869.
The mining activities of General Patrick Edward Connor,
founder of Fort Douglas, attracted a growing number
of non-Mormons. In 1873 Archbishop Joseph S. Alemany
of San Francisco entrusted the approximately 800 Catholics
among Utah's 87,000 inhabitants to Father Lawrence Scanlan
(1843-1915).
Though fluent in French, German, and
Italian, Scanlan symbolized an Irish influence in the
pioneer community. He built churches, schools, and hospitals
in railroad junctions and mining camps: Salt Lake City
and Ogden in 1875, Silver Reef in 1879, Frisco and Park
City in 1881, and Eureka in 1885. Miners who struck
it rich often helped provide financial support. The
Pious Fund, established in 1697 by the Society of Jesus
for missionary lands, provided additional funding.
On 23 November 1886 Rome created the
Vicariate of Utah and Eastern Nevada and appointed Scanlan
bishop. He was consecrated at St. Mary's Cathedral in
San Francisco on 29 June 1887. The vicariate developed
into the Diocese of Salt Lake City on 27 January 1891
and still included seven counties in eastern Nevada.
The new diocese numbered 8,000 in population and included
fifteen churches cared for by fourteen priests.
Scanlan established an official newspaper,
The Intermountain Catholic, in 1899 and founded
missions and parishes throughout the state. Diocesan
organizations such as the Knights of Columbus also began
to form. Holy Cross Hospital, All Hallows College, Kearns-St.
Ann's Orphanage, and Judge Mercy Home and Hospital served
a growing Catholic community in Salt Lake City. On 15
August 1909 thousands attended the dedication of the
Cathedral of St. Mary Magdalene. Six years later Bishop
Scanlan died.
His successor, Joseph S. Glass, CM
(1874-1926), decorated the interior of the cathedral
and renamed it the Cathedral of the Madeleine. His tenure
was followed by that of Bishop John J. Mitty (1884-1961),
later Archbishop of San Francisco, who reorganized the
diocese and stabilized its economy. On 27 March 1931
Rome removed the eastern Nevada counties from the diocese,
declaring its boundaries contiguous with those of the
state of Utah.
Bishop James E. Kearney (1884-1977)
brought national renown to Utah as a missionary entity
of the American Catholic Church. The writings and radio
addresses of Bishop Duane G. Hunt (1884-1960), fifth
bishop of the diocese, kept Utah Catholics in the national
spotlight.
Bishop Joseph Lennox Federal (1910-
) attended sessions of the Second Vatican Council in
Rome during the years from 1962 through 1965. He helped
steady his people through the upheaval of change that
followed the council, and also updated diocesan life
and liturgy in accordance with its directives. The appointment
of Bishop William K. Weigand (1937- ), upon the retirement
of Bishop Federal in 1980, expressed the sensitivity
of the American Church to issues of social justice.
Bishop Weigand's service as a pastor in Cali, Colombia,
for nearly a decade helped form his present concern
for the Spanish-speaking and other minorities. With
90 priests, 95 women in religious orders, and an increasing
number of lay men and women appointees, his successor
will guide a diocese of more than 70,000 Catholics into
the second century of its existence.
Bernice M. Mooney
