Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Wichita is a Roman Catholic diocese in Kansas. It covers Allen, Bourbon, Butler, Chase, Chautauqua, Cherokee, Cowley, Crawford, Elk, Greenwood, Harper, Harvey, Kingman, Labette, Marion, McPherson, Montgomery, Morris, Neosho, Reno, Rice, Sedgwick, Sumner, Wilson, and Woodson counties in south central and southeast Kansas. The diocese is home to 120,115 Catholics in 90 parishes. It is a suffragan see of the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas.

The first resident pastor within the area now known as the Diocese of Wichita was appointed in 1873. The Vicariate of Kansas came to an end when the Diocese of Leavenworth, covering the entire state, was established in 1877, with Bishop Fink as first bishop. Kansas grew so rapidly over the next ten years that Bishop Fink petitioned the Holy Father to establish two new Sees in Kansas, one at Wichita and the other at Concordia. The petition having been granted, in 1887 the western two- thirds of the state was divided equally in half. The north became the Diocese of Concordia and the south became the Diocese of Wichita. Reverend James O’Reilly, pastor in Topeka, Kansas, was appointed the first bishop of Wichita. However, he became ill and died before being consecrated, leaving the new diocese without a bishop for a year.

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