Diocese of Phoenix


The Diocese of Phoenix is a diocese in western and central Arizona in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the ecclesiastical province of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. The diocese was established in 1969; the bishop is John P. Dolan.

Territory

The Diocese of Phoenix includes Maricopa, Mohave, Yavapai, and Coconino counties and the Gila River Indian Reservation in Pinal County. It excludes the Navajo Nation territory.

History

1539 to 1800

The first Catholic in modern-day Arizona was Marcos de Niza, a French Franciscan friar. He traveled up from the Gulf of California into Southern Arizona in 1539.
Spanish Jesuit priests arrived in present-day northern Mexico in the 1610s in the lowlands near the Pacific Ocean. They worked out a compromise with the people of the Yaqui River valley that allowed for the establishment of over fifty mission settlements. However, this arrangement broke down when the Jesuits attempted to end the Yaqui shamanic religious tradition.
The Opata people allowed the Jesuits to set up missions in the Pima and Tohono O'odham territories in present-day Arizona.An agreement between General Pedro de Perea and the viceroy of New Spain resulted in the formation of the Province of Nueva Navarra in 1637. It was renamed the Province of Sonora in 1648.
The most famous Jesuit missionary in the region was Eusebio Kino. He arrived in Nueva Navarra in 1687 and started missionary work in the Pimería Alta area. He began his first mission at Cucurpe in the present-day Mexican State of Sonora, then established churches and missions in Los Remedios, Imuris, Magdalena, Cocóspera, San Ignacio, Tubutama and Caborca. To develop an economy for the natives, Kino taught them European farming techniques. He established the Mission San Xavier del Bac in the Tohono O’odham Nation in present-day Tucson in 1692.

1800 to 1900

With the end of the Mexican War of Independence in 1821, the Franciscans and other religious orders abandoned their missions in Nueva Navarra and other areas of New Spain. When Mexico ceded the Southwest to the United States after the Mexican-American War in 1848, the Catholics in the region came under the following ecclesiastical jurisdictions:
  • Vicariate Apostolic of New Mexico
  • Diocese of New Mexico
  • Vicariate Apostolic of Arizona
  • Diocese of Tucson
  • Diocese of Phoenix
The first Catholic church in Phoenix, the Church of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, was dedicated in 1881. It would remain the only parish in the city until 1924. Also in 1881, the first Catholic church was constructed in Tempe; it would be replaced in 1903 by Old St. Mary's Church. The first Catholic church in Flagstaff, First Nativity, was dedicated in 1888. Sacred Heart Church in Prescott was finished in 1894.

1900 to 2000

Our Lady of Perpetual Help, known as the Old Adobe Mission, was constructed by Mexican Catholics in the 1910s; it is the oldest Catholic church in Scottsdale.
Pope Paul VI erected the Diocese of Phoenix in 1969, taking its territory from the Dioceses of Tucson and Gallup. The pope appointed Auxiliary Bishop Edward A. McCarthy from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as the first bishop of Phoenix. In 1976, McCarthy became coadjutor archbishop of the Archdiocese of Miami.
The second bishop of Phoenix was Auxiliary Bishop James Rausch from the Diocese of St. Cloud, named by Paul VI in 1977. On occasion, he would celebrate mass in orange groves to accommodate undocumented migrants who were afraid to travel to a church in a city. Rausch died in 1981.
To replace Rausch, Pope John Paul II appointed Thomas J. O'Brien from Tucson in 1981. During his tenure, O'Brien earned a reputation as a successful fundraiser, builder of schools, and advocate for the poor. He was also instrumental in persuading John Paul II and Mother Teresa to visit Phoenix in the late 1980s. In 2003, a week after O'Brien fatally struck a pedestrian in a hit and run incident, he resigned. His successor was Thomas Olmsted, previously bishop of the Diocese of Lincoln.

2000 to present

In 2009 the diocese contributed $50,000 to the successful campaign by Stand For Marriage Maine to overturn an impending legalization of same-sex marriage in Maine. In 2014, two priests were shot during a burglary at Mater Misericordiae Mission in Phoenix: Kenneth Walker was killed and Joseph Terra was wounded. In 2017, the diocese marked the 100th anniversary of what became known as the Miracle of Fátima in Portugal.
The diocese in 2019 opened Nazareth House, a two-year, college level seminary in Phoenix.
In July 2021, in response to Pope Francis' Motu Proprio Traditionis Custodes, which restricts the celebration of the Traditional Latin Mass, Olmsted issued a decree allowing the TLM to continue in the diocese under his dispensation. Early in 2022, Andres Arango, pastor at St. Gregory Parish in Phoenix, resigned after learning he that he had used the incorrect words when performing thousands of baptisms. Olmsted said he believed the inadvertent error required the individuals to be baptized again. Olmsted retired in 2022.
Auxiliary Bishop John P. Dolan of the Diocese of San Diego was appointed by Francis as the next bishop of Phoenix in 2022.In April 2025, the University of Mary in Bismarck, North Dakota, and the Diocese of Phoenix announced plans to establish the first full seminary in Arizona.As of 2026, Dolan is the current bishop of the diocese.

Media

Radio ministry

Radio Family Rosary is a radio ministry of the Diocese of Phoenix founded in 1983, which is carried every weekday by Salem's KXXT at 8:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. Mountain Time, providing a daily rosary service.

Newspaper

The Catholic Sun is the online newspaper of the Diocese of Phoenix. The diocese publishes a print version, called the Catholic Sun Magazine six times yearly.

Bishops

Bishops of Phoenix

  1. Edward Anthony McCarthy, appointed Coadjutor Archbishop and later Archbishop of Miami
  2. James Steven Rausch
  3. Thomas O'Brien
  4. Thomas Olmsted
  5. John P. Dolan

    Auxiliary Bishops

  6. Eduardo Nevares
  7. Peter Dai Bui

    Diocesan priests who became a bishop

, appointed Bishop of Gallup in 2009:

Statistics

As of 2025, the Diocese of Phoenix reported the following statistics
  • Total Catholic population – 2 million
  • Diocesan priests – 130
  • Extern priests – 78
  • Religious priests – 98
  • Permanent deacons – 225
  • Religious brothers – 10
  • Religious sisters – 129
  • Seminarians – 52
  • Parishes – 94
  • Missions – 23
  • Catholic cemeteries – 6
  • High schools – 7
  • Elementary schools – 29
  • Pre-schools – 29

    Parishes and missions

As of 2025, the Diocese of Phoenix has 94 parishes and 23 missions.

Schools

The Diocese of Phoenix has seven Catholic high schools, 29 elementary schools, and 29 pre-schools.Benedictine University Mesa and Mary College at ASU offer degree programs within the Diocese of Phoenix, and the diocese operates campus ministry programs at the Newman Centers for four public universities.
High schools:
As of 2020, 28 communities of religious men and 15 communities of religious women have a presence in the Diocese of Phoenix. A diocesan Office for Consecrated Life serves as a guide for members of religious communities and for persons interested in consecrated life in its various forms.