The Catholic Church in Indiana 1686-1814

2026 marks the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Msgr. John J. Doyle’s book, The Catholic Church in Indiana 1686-1814 ¹. At the time it was published, some were hoping that Monsignor Doyle would write a book telling the history of the Diocese of Vincennes, but as the Monsignor tells it

These pages are the prologue to a projected chronicle of the archdiocese of
Indianapolis,

That “projected chronicle” never took place. There were attempts to write at least a chronicle of Archdiocesan Parishes in Our Family Album-A Journey of Faith published during the 1984 150th Anniversary of the Archdiocese. ²

In the early 1990’s an attempt was made to gather some historians together to write a new history of the Church in Indiana, but it never got very far.

The point I want to make is that despite a lack of published histories of the Archdiocese, there is still a hope that people will be aware of at least part of the history of the Archdiocese and Catholicism in Indiana in general. That can only be done by parousing the many sites (like this one) that feature Catholic history. Also, various articles that pop up now and then. For now, we work with the material that is available. Monsignor Doyle died in 1985, but his desire to dissemitate information about the history of the Church in Indiana is still out there. Many libraries in Indiana have the small 117 page book available.

Monsignor Doyle, in his wisdom, went on to write:

Anyone trying to tell the story of a diocese faces a situation that is strictly dilemmatic.

He cannot adequately deal with the diocese without relating what happened in the parishes; and no account of a parish is satisfactory that leaves out what took place in other parishes nearby and far away and in the bishop’s office. Further progress in the chronicle of the archdiocese must seek to find a way of escape, and the way may turn out to be a maze.

I could not have written these chapters without the materials collected by Father Robert Gorman during his years as historian and archivist of the archdiocese and the notes and comments he wrote regarding them. Equally important has been the large number of works on the history of the Church in the Midwest in the Marian College library, the gift of Archbishop Schulte. Most of the information brought together here I have derived from the Illinois Historical Collections, the publications of the Indiana Historical Society and the Indiana Historical Bureau, and histories of other dioceses and of religious communities.

If there is anything not told before the story, it must be attributed to the translation of the registry of the Old Cathedral in Vincennes, made many years ago by Father Frederick Burget but never before studied in detail.

It is my hope that the reading of the story told here may awaken the desire, latent in almost every heart, to understand what we are by discovering how we came to be, and to stir up the ambition to preserve for those that come after us the memory of the works worthy of emulation that God performed by the hands of those that went before us, while we strive to deserve our heritage

1. Doyle, John J. 1976. The Catholic Church in Indiana, 1686-1814. Indianapolis: Criterion Press.[↩]
2. Widner, Thomas C., ed. 1984. Our Family Album : A Journey of Faith : Sketches of the People and Parishes of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis in Celebration of Her 150th Anniversary. Indianapolis [Ind.]: Printed and published by the Criterion Press, Inc.[↩]