Archdiocese of Indianapolis Archidioecesis Indianapolitana |
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Location | |
Country | United States |
Territory | Central Indiana |
Ecclesiastical province | Indianapolis |
Statistics | |
Area | 13,815 sq mi (35,780 km2) |
Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2010) 2,573,000 244,000 (9.5%) |
Parishes | 133 |
Information | |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | May 6, 1834 (183 years ago) |
Cathedral | Saints Peter and Paul Cathedral, Indianapolis |
Patron saint |
Saint Francis Xavier Saint Theodora Guérin |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Metropolitan Archbishop | sede vacante |
Emeritus Bishops | Daniel M. Buechlein |
Map | |
Website | |
www.archindy.org |
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Indianapolis is a Latin rite division of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. When it was originally erected as the Diocese of Vincennes, Indiana, on May 6, 1834, it encompassed all of Indiana as well as the eastern third of Illinois. It was renamed the Diocese of Indianapolis on March 28, 1898. Bishop Francis Silas Chatard, who had been living in Indianapolis since 1878 when he was appointed Bishop of Vincennes, became the first Bishop of Indianapolis. It was elevated from a suffragan diocese to a metropolitan archdiocese on October 21, 1944.
Pope Benedict XVI accepted the resignation of Archbishop Daniel M. Buechlein, OSB, in September 2011, due to illness. Auxiliary Bishop Christopher J. Coyne served as the Apostolic Administrator until the Pope's appointment of Joseph William Tobin, CSsR on October 16, 2012. Per the 2000 census, the archdiocese contained 2,430,606 people, 233,273 of whom were Catholic. It was announced on October 9, 2016, that Tobin would be elevated to the cardinalate on November 19, 2016, becoming the first Cardinal to serve as Archbishop of Indianapolis. On November 7, 2016, it was announced that Tobin was now Archbishop-elect of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark.
On June 13, 2017, it was announced Pope Francis had appointed Evansville Bishop Charles Thompson as Archbishop of the Diocese.
The archdiocese covers 39 counties in central and southern Indiana, with a total area of 13,757 square miles. As per 2014, it pastorally served 244,000 Catholics (9.5% of 2,573,000 total) on 35,768 km² in 136 parishes with 235 priests (140 diocesan, 95 religious), 40 deacons, 681 lay religious (138 brothers, 543 sisters) and 27 seminarians.