Our Founding

The Diocese of Dodge City was established May 19, 1951. This territory was formerly part of the Diocese of Wichita, established August 2, 1887; the Diocese of Leavenworth established May 22, 1877, and the Vicariate Apostolic of the Indian Territory established July 19, 1850.

The Diocese comprises the following 28 counties in the state of Kansas: Barber, Barton, Clark, Commanche, Edwards, Finney, Ford, Grant, Gray, Greeley, Hamilton, Haskell, Hodgeman, Kearney, Kiowa, Lane, Meade, Morton, Ness, Pawnee, Pratt, Rush, Scott, Seward, Stafford, Stanton, Stevens, Wichita. It covers 23,000 square miles.

The total population is 212,147; the Catholic population is 44,504.

Our Crest

The Spanish colors of red and gold predominate the shield as a reference to the explorer Coronado, and the 15th century missionary Father Juan De Padilla, who ministered among the Native Americans in the territory that is now the diocese.
The vertical bar dividing the shield refers to the 100th longitudinal meridian which runs through Dodge City. 

At the honor point of the shield is a golden circle containing the symbol of the Sacred Heart, the titular patron of the Cathedral. This medallion is composed of gold, signifying the Divinity of Christ, and of red, the color of His humanity. On either side of the vertical bar are two Indian arrowheads. They represent both the Indian wars of Colonel Henry Dodge as well as the Diocese of Wichita from which the Diocese of Dodge City was carved. The embattlements in the upper section are the heraldic equivalent of fortifications which marked Dodge City as a frontier town. The hawk surmounting the embattlements represents the heifer of the Black Hawk Indian War, Colonel Dodge, who brought peace to the Mississippi Valley. *

Our See City

Dodge City was the obvious choice for the See City of a new diocese. Travel-wise, Dodge City was a natural focal point - as near to the center as you can come. And it was Wichita's pioneer bishop, the Most Rev. John J. Hennessy, who first envisioned this. In 1915, when Father John Handly, pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Dodge City, sought Bishop Hennessy's advice in building a new church, Bishop Hennessy instructed him to buy a large piece of property. Father Handly thought that two lots would be sufficient, but Bishop Hennessy responded, 'Some day Dodge City will become the See of a new diocese, and therefore the only sensible thing is to acquire sufficient property now.' (Quote taken from The History of Sacred Heart Cathedral, Diamond Jubilee, p.49)*

Our Cathedral

A new parish was erected in the diocese December 9, 2001, when the two parish congregations in the See City formally consolidated. 
The merging of the two parishes was an idea that surfaced during the self-study evaluations which took place during the diocesan restructuring process. Both parishes needed larger churches and the diocese needed a larger worship space and facilities for diocesan liturgies. A new cathedral would benefit all concerned. 
Many parishes were started in communities with a specific ethnic background. The parish of the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe, however, began its existence as a multi-cultural congregation. [...]
The cathedral includes a 1,400-seat nave, a Eucharistic reservation chapel designed for perpetual adoration, the Sacred Heart Daily Mass Chapel, and a shrine chapel for Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the diocese.*

Our Patrons

"Coming up in 1961 was the tenth anniversary of the diocese. In an effort to observe it; and since the diocese had been assigned officially no patron, we surveyed the priests and others and after a vote, it was agreed that the patron of the diocese should be Our Lady and she should be requested under the title of Our Lady of Guadalupe. The secondary patron should be St. John the Baptist, honoring Bishop Franz, the first bishop of the diocese, whose name was John Baptist. And so on September the 12th of 1961, the 10th anniversary of the installations of the first bishop of the diocese, Rome agreed to honor the diocese with Our Lady of Guadalupe as our principal patroness and St. John the Baptist as secondary patron. The Diocese of Dodge City was the first in the United States to have Our Lady of Guadalupe as the principal patron." (Bishop Marion F. Forst, Oral History, Sept. 14, 1979.)*

Our Bishops

Bishop John B. Franz, 1951-1959
Bishop Marion F. Forst, 1960-1976
Bishop Eugene J. Gerber, 1976-1983
Bishop Stanley G. Schlarman, 1983-1998
Bishop Ronald M. Gilmore, 1998-2010
Bishop John B. Brungardt, 2010-present 

To learn more about our history: Diocesan Archives

*Whole sections copied from "Part One: Territorial History" of A Legacy of Faith, 2001 by Timothy F. Wenzl.