(T UCSONENSIS ).

Suffragan of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe. It comprises the State of Arizona and the southernmost counties of New Mexico, an extent of 131,212 sq. miles, most of which is desert land. The Catholic population is approximately 48,500, mostly Mexicans. There are 43 priests, 27 parishes, 43 missions, 100 stations, 7 academies, 10 parochial schools, 3 Indian schools, 1 orphanage, 5 hospitals.

Up to 1853, date of the Gadsden purchase, Arizona was part of the Mexican Diocese of Durango. In 1859 it was annexed by the Holy See to the Diocese of Santa Fe, made a vicariate Apostolic in 1868, and erected a diocese by Leo XIII in 1897. The first vicar Apostolic was the most Rev. J. B. Salpointe, followed by the Most Rev. P. Bourgade, who both died archbishops of Santa Fe, the former in 1898, the latter in 1908. They were succeeded by Bishop Henry Granjon, born in 1863, consecrated in the cathedral of Baltimore, 17 June, 1900. The mission founded by French missionaries has remained in charge of priests mostly of the same nationality, assisted by Franciscan Fathers of the St. Louis and Cincinnati provinces, who attend principally to the Indian missions, and by the Sisters of St. Joseph, of Mercy, of Loretto, of the Blessed Sacrament, of St. Dominic, and of the Precious Blood. The full-blood Indians in the diocese number 40,000: Apache, Chimehuivi, Hualpai, Maricopa, Mohave, Moqui, Navajo, Pápago Pima, Yava Supai. About 4000 are Catholics. They were visited by the Spanish missionaries as early as 1539 (Fray Marcos de Niza), and evangelized in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries by the Franciscans and the Jesuits. Of the churches then built two remain: Tumacacuri (now partly in ruins), and San Xavier del Bac, nine miles south of Tucson, founded by Father Kino, S.J. , in 1699, and kept in a perfect state of preservation by the constant attention and liberal care of the clergy of Tucson. It is considered the best example of the Spanish Renaissance mission style north of Mexico, and the best preserved of all the old mission churches in America. The buildings have been completely restored (1906-10) by the Bishop of Tucson. The Pápago Indians, in whose midst stands the San Xavier mission, have received uninterrupted care from the clergy of Tucson. In 1866 the Rev. J.B. Salpointe founded there a school, which has since been maintained, with the Sisters of St. Joseph in charge, by the clergy of Tucson, at the expense of the parish. That school was the first established in Arizona for the Indians.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online