With the discovery of gold in the western foothills of Nevada in 1858, large numbers of miners started flooding into the region, establishing mining towns. That same year, Archbishop Joseph Alemany of the Archdiocese of San Francisco sent Reverend Joseph Gallagher to the mining towns to tend to the Catholic population. Two years later, the Vatican placed western Nevada under the new Diocese of Grass Valley in California.[3] Bishop Eugene O’Connell of Grass Valley started sending more priests to Nevada to establish missions and build churches.[3]
The first Catholic church in Nevada was constructed in Virginia City in 1860 to serve the miners in that town. Another Catholic church was constructed in Carson City around the same time.[4] The first church in Reno was Saint Mary's, constructed there in 1871.[5] St. Thomas Church, the future cathedral, was finished in Reno in 1910.
In 1915, Archbishop James J. Keane wrote a letter to the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, Diomede Falconio, advocating a bishop for Nevada, citing the difficulties of the California diocese in providing coverage there. However, nothing came from Keane's initiative.[3]
While traveling west through Nevada by train during the 1920s, Cardinal George Mundelein, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, asked about which bishop was in charge of the state. When he found out that Nevada did not have its own bishop, he pushed the Vatican to establish a diocese there, offering support from his archdiocese.[3]
Under Gorman, the diocese opened soup kitchens and homeless shelters in Reno in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression.[8] During World War II, he created USO centers for soldiers on leave, African-American wartime workers and residents in Boulder City.[8] Gorman became coadjutor bishop for the Diocese of Dallas in 1952.
The second bishop of Reno-Las Vegas was Auxiliary Bishop Daniel F. Walsh of San Francisco, named by Pope John Paul II in 1986.[10] When the pope split southern Nevada into the new Diocese of Las Vegas in 1995, he named Walsh as its first bishop. The Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas reverted to the Diocese of Reno.[9]
The first bishop of the reestablished Diocese of Reno was Bishop Phillip Straling from the Diocese of San Bernardino, named by John Paul II in 1995.[11] Straling retired in 2005. That same year, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Monsignor Randolph Calvo of San Francisco as the next bishop of Reno.
In 2009, Calvo was named in a lawsuit by Richard DeMolen, the former pastor of Our Lady of Tahoe Catholic Parish in Zephyr Cove, Nevada. Calvo had fired DeMolen because the priest had refused to remove a restraining order he filed against a diocesan deacon. DeMolen claimed the deacon had sent him a death threat, which Calvo never investigated. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2010.[12]
2010 to present
Nick Nicosia, former lay administrator of St. Mary's in the Mountains church in Virginia City, sued the diocese in 2010 over his termination from this job. Nicosia claimed the diocese fired him because he objected to a donation from the former owner of Mustang Ranch, a legal brothel in Sparks, to a church restoration project. The diocese said they removed him from the position because a priest was available to take the position.[13] Calvo retired in 2021.
Reverend Edmund Boyle, a chaplain at St. Mary's Hospital in Reno, was charged in 1987 with sexually molesting a 12 year old boy. The developmentally disabled victim was terminally ill. A nurse discovered Boyle exposing himself to the boy at Riverside Hospital for Skilled Care.[16] He was later convicted of lewdness with a child.[17] Boyle was later accused of sexually abusing minors in Washington State and Oregon.
A Reno woman received a $50,000 settlement from the diocese in November 2004. The victim said she had been raped by Reverend David Brusky, a member of the Society of the Divine Savior, during the 1970s when she was a teenager. Five other women also came forward with abuse allegations against Brusky.[18] He was also accused of abuse in the Diocese of Santa Rosa in California.[19]
In 2010, Bishop Calvo placed Reverend Tom Cronin, a priest at St. Mary's in the Mountains Parish in Virginia City, on leave due to a sexual abuse allegation from Missouri. Calvo had read that Cronin was being sued in Kansas City, Missouri, by a woman who claimed he molested at age 17 in Hamilton, Missouri. Cronin moved to the Reno area to work as a chaplain in 1996. Calvo was criticized for not suspending Cronin immediately. Cronin was never returned to ministry.[20]
The diocese in 2019 published a list of 12 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors, dating back 80 years.[21]
The diocese in 2022 suspended Reverend Patrick Klekas from ministry after having an inappropriate relationship with an adult woman. In June 2023, the diocese announced that he was the subject of a criminal investigation and would remain suspended.[22]
The Archdiocese of San Francisco is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the northern California region of the United States. The Archdiocese of San Francisco was erected on July 29, 1853, by Pope Pius IX and its cathedral is the Cathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption.
The Archdiocese of Las Vegas is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Nevada, United States.
The Diocese of Salt Lake City is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church for the State of Utah in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese, formerly of the metropolitan Archdiocese of San Francisco and, since May 30, 2023, of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas.
The Diocese of Baker is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Eastern Oregon in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Portland.
Randolph Roque Calvo is an America prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. Calvo served as the seventh bishop of the Diocese of Reno in Nevada from 2006 until 2021
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Green Bay is a Latin church diocese in the northeast region of Wisconsin in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Milwaukee. Its mother church is the Cathedral of Saint Francis Xavier in Green Bay.
The Diocese of San Diego is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Southern California, United States. Its ecclesiastical territory includes all of San Diego and Imperial Counties.
The Diocese of San Bernardino is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, in Southern California in the United States. Erected by Pope Paul VI on July 14, 1978, its jurisdiction extends over San Bernardino and Riverside counties. As of 2021, the diocese had 92 parishes and 12 missions in its territory. Its cathedral is Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in San Bernardino.
The Diocese of Springfield–Cape Girardeau is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Missouri in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Louis.
The Diocese of Duluth is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in northeastern Minnesota in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis.
The Diocese of Dallas is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in North Texas in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of San Antonio.
Thomas Kiely Gorman was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as the first bishop of the new Diocese of Reno in Nevada from 1931 to 1952 and as the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Dallas in Texas from 1954 to 1969.
George Leo Thomas is an American prelate of the Catholic Church who has served as Archbishop of Las Vegas since 2023. He has been the ordinary of the diocese since 2018, when it was still a suffragan see. He previously served as Bishop of Helena from 2004 to 2018 and as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle from 1999 to 2004.
Joseph Anthony Pepe is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Las Vegas in Nevada from 2001 to 2018.
Daniel Francis Walsh is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church.
Thomas Joseph Connolly was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of Baker in Oregon from 1971 to 1999.
Norman Francis McFarland was an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as the second bishop of the Diocese of Orange in California from 1987 until 1998. He previously served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of San Francisco in California from 1970 to 1976 and as bishop of the new Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas in Nevada from 1976 to 1987.
Phillip Francis Straling is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as bishop of the Diocese of San Bernardino in California from 1978 to 1995, and as bishop of the Diocese of Reno in Nevada from 1995 to 2005.
Daniel Henry Mueggenborg is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop for the Diocese of Reno in Nevada since 2021. He served as an auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Seattle in Washington State from 2017 to 2021.
Gregory William Gordon is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as the first auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Las Vegas in Nevada since 2021.
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