The Diocese of Tulsa also called the Diocese of Tulsa and Eastern Oklahoma (Latin: Dioecesis Tulsensis) is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in the eastern part of Oklahoma in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Oklahoma City.
The mother church of the diocese is Holy Family Cathedral in Tulsa. The bishop as of 2023 is David Konderla.
Statistics
The Diocese of Tulsa covers 26,417 square miles (68,420km2) over 31 counties in eastern Oklahoma – including the most populous county, Tulsa County.
The first Catholic presence in present-day Oklahoma may have been the expeditions of the Spanish explorers Francisco Vásquez y Coronado and Hernando de Soto in 1541 and 1542.[2] However, there is no evidence of missionary activity in the region until the 1830s. With the passage by the US Congress of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, tens of thousands of Native Americans from the southern and midwestern states were moved west to the Indian Territory, which included Oklahoma.[3]
By 1834, the Diocese of St. Louis had gained jurisdiction for the Indian Territory.[4] Charles Van Quickenborne, a missionary Jesuit priest, came from the St. Louis area to visit the Claremore band of the Osage Nation near Cabin Creek.[2]Jurisdiction over the Oklahoma area was passed to the new Diocese of Little Rock in 1843.[4] Priests from a mission in Neosho County, Kansas, in 1847 started visiting the tribe and US Army posts in the regions. Other priests visited from missions in Texas and Arkansas.[2]
1870 to 1900
A priest from Arkansas, Michael Smyth in 1872 helped Irish workers building the Missouri-Kansas-Texas railroad to construct St. Patrick's the first Catholic Church in the Indian Territory in Atoka.[5]In 1876, Pope Pius IX erected the Apostolic Prefecture of Indian Territory, removing the Indian Territory from the Diocese of Little Rock. The pope named Isadore Robot as the first prefect of the territory.[6]In 1885, St. John the Evangelist Parish was erected in McAlester, the first Catholic parish in that community.[7]
In 1890, the US Government separated western Oklahoma from the Indian Territory, founding the Oklahoma Territory.[8] The Tulsa area remained as part of the now-smaller Indian Territory.[9]In 1891, Pope Leo XIII created the Apostolic Vicariate of Indian Territory, continuing its jurisdiction over the Oklahoma and Indian Territories. The Church of the Assumption was the first parish in Muskogee, established by the priest in 1891.[10] The first parish in Tulsa, Holy Family, opened in 1899.[5]
Pope Pius XI renamed the Diocese of Oklahoma City as the Diocese of Oklahoma City-Tulsa in 1930. This was due to the population growth of Tulsa and its surrounding communities. Bishop Francis Kelley of Oklahoma City became the first bishop of the new diocese. The Tulsa area would remain part of this diocese for the next 42 years.[13] In 1936, St. Anne Parish was established in Broken Arrow, the first parish in that community.[14]
In 1960, William K. Warren, Sr., founder of the Warren Petroleum Company, donated the funds to open St. Francis Hospital in Tulsa. It is today St. Francis Medical Center.[15]
Pope John Paul II selected Reverend Edward Slattery of the Archdiocese of Chicago to replace Beltran in Tulsa in 1993. Slattery served for 23 years before retiring in 2016.[18] That same year, Pope Francis named David Konderla from the Diocese of Austin as the new bishop of Tulsa.[19]In 2020, the diocese withdrew from the Oklahoma Council of Churches because it would not explicitly condemn abortion rights for women.[20]
In April 2026, John Sommer, a deacon at Christ the King Church in Tulsa, was indicted on charges of bank fraud and one count of unlawful monetary transactions. He was accused of stealing over $1.4 million from the parish.[21]As of 2026, Konderla is the bishop of Austin.
Sex abuse
A 13-year-old girl and her parents reported to the diocese in 1999 that she had been sexually molested that year by Reverend John Jangam, a visiting priest from India. It was stated that on separate occasions, Jangram touched her inappropriately. After receiving the allegations, the diocese sent Jangam back to India. In 2002, the girl publicly revealed her story.[22]
In July 2002, the diocese abruptly removed Kenneth Lewis, the pastor of St. John the Evangelist Church in McAlester, after several parents complained about his inappropriate behavior with their children. In 1994, a diocesan employee had reported seeing Lewis give a backrub to a boy in Lewis' bedroom. After the employee told the boy's parents and they complained to the diocese, Bishop Slattery sent Lewis away for treatment. Lewis later returned to ministry.[23] Slattery in August 2002 admitted making a mistake in allowing Lewis in 1994 to return to ministry.[24]
In March 2007, the diocese was sued in Illinois by the parents of a then 14-year-old boy who they alleged was sexually assaulted by Lewis on a trip to Evanston, Illinois, in 2001. The statute of limitations had passed on criminal prosecution.[25] Lewis was laicized by the Vatican in July 2007.[26]The diocese in October 2019 released a list of 11 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors dating back to 1973.[27]
