Diocese of Amarillo Dioecesis Amarillensis | |
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 Coat of arms | |
| Location | |
| Country |  United States |
| Territory | Panhandle of Texas |
| Ecclesiastical province | Province of San Antonio |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 25,800 sq mi (67,000 km2) |
Population
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| Parishes | 38 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Catholic |
| Sui iuris church | Latin Church |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | August 3, 1926 |
| Cathedral | St. Mary's Cathedral |
| Patron saint | Saint Lawrence[1] |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Leo XIV |
| Bishop | Patrick Zurek |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Gustavo Garcia-Siller |
| Bishops emeritus | John Yanta |
| Map | |
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| Website | |
| amarillodiocese.org | |
TheDiocese of Amarillo (Latin:Dioecesis Amarillensis) is a diocese of theCatholic church in the Texas Panhandle region in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitanArchdiocese of San Antonio. The mother church isSt. Mary's Cathedral inAmarillo. The bishop isPatrick Zurek.
The Diocese of Amarillo consists of the following 26 counties: Armstrong, Briscoe, Carson, Castro, Childress, Collingsworth, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Donley, Gray, Hall, Hansford, Hartley, Hemphill, Hutchinson, Lipscomb, Moore, Ochiltree, Oldham, Parmer, Potter, Randall, Roberts, Sherman, Swisher, and Wheeler.[2]
TheTexas Panhandle was under several different Catholic jurisdictions before the creation of the Diocese of Amarillo:
The first Catholic priests in the Panhandle came fromKansas andNew Mexico during the 1870s, serving the small Catholic population in periodic visits. The first Catholic church in the Panhandle was St. Mary's, dedicated inClarendon in 1892, to serve Irish and German railroad workers.[3] In 1903, construction started on St. Mary's, the first Catholic church in Amarillo.[4]
Pope Pius XI founded the Diocese of Amarillo on August 3, 1926, taking its territory from the Dioceses of Dallas and San Antonio.[5][6] The new diocese contained large areas of northern Texas. The pope namedRudolph Gerken of Dallas as the first bishop of Amarillo.[7] During his tenure in Amarillo, Gerken oversaw the construction of thirty-five churches. He also foundedPrice Memorial College, a secondary school in Amarillo, and served as its first president.[8] In 1933, Gerken became archbishop of theArchdiocese of Santa Fe.[9]
The second bishop of Amarillo wasRobert Lucey of theDiocese of Los Angeles, named by Pius XI in 1934.[10] He established theTexas Panhandle Register as the diocesan newspaper. Lucey was elevated to archbishop of San Antonio in 1941. That same year,Pope Pius XII appointed MonsignorLaurence FitzSimon of San Antonio as the next bishop of Amarillo.[11][12]
During Fitzsimon's 17-year-long tenure as bishop, the number of churches, priests, schools, and institutions in the diocese more than doubled.[13] In September 1945, after the end ofWorld War II, FitzSimon wrote a letter to US CongressmanFrancis E. Worley protesting the conditions at the Italianprisoner of war camp inHereford, Texas. FitzSimon had visited the camp in July 1945 and saw that prisoners were receiving low rations of substandard quality. They also told him stories of beatings and other mistreatment by guards.[14] Fitzsimon died in 1958.
Auxiliary BishopJohn Morkovsky was the next bishop of Amarillo, named by Pius XII in 1958. The Vatican in 1961 erected theDiocese of San Angelo, taking 21 counties from the Diocese of Amarillo.[3] Morkovsky became coadjutor bishop of theDiocese of Galveston-Houston in 1963.[15]Pope John XXIII in 1963 named MonsignorLawrence De Falco of theDiocese of Fort Worth as the fifth bishop of Amarillo.[16]
During his 16-year-long tenure, De Falco worked to implement theSecond Vatican Council reforms, establishing pastoral councils and senates of priests, nuns, andpermanent deacons.[17] He also reduced diocesan debt, but was forced to close several schools and hospitals.[17]St. Laurence Church in Amarillo replaced Sacred Heart as the diocesan cathedral in 1975.[18] De Falco retired due to poor health in 1979.
In 1980,Pope John Paul II appointedLeroy Matthiesen of Amarillo as bishop of that diocese.[19] In 1981, in protest of the assembly of theneutron bomb at a facility inPantex, Matthiesen called for workers there to resign their jobs in protest. None were reported to have obeyed his call.[20]
The Vatican in 1983 erected theDiocese of Lubbock, taking 23 counties from the southern part of the Diocese of Amarillo.[21] Matthiesen retired in 1997. The next bishop of Amarillo was Auxiliary Bishop John Yanta of San Antonio, appointed by John Paul II in 1997. Yanta retired in 2008.[22]
As of 2023, the bishop of Amarillo isPatrick Zurek from San Antonio, named byPope Benedict XVI in 2008.[23]
During his tenure as bishop, Bishop Matthiesen admitted eight priests into the Diocese of Amarillo after they had undergone treatment following accusations of sexual impropriety.[24] The most controversial individuals were John Salazar and Ed Graff.[25] Salazar in 1987 went to prison in California for abusing two teenage boys in theArchdiocese of Los Angeles. ArchbishopRoger Mahony of Los Angeles had notified the Vatican.[26] Graff was dismissed from theDiocese of Allentown due to accusations ofsexual abuse. After Matthiesen accepted Graff into the Diocese of Amarillo, BishopThomas Welsh of Allentown expressed his concern that Matthiesen never consulted him about the transfer.[25]
By September 2002, eight priests had resigned from the diocese due to sexual abuse allegations.[27] In 2003, the diocese settled the lawsuit for the woman impregnated by Herrera, providing approximately $27,000 for the child.[28] In November 2004, the diocese settled a second lawsuit for $50,000. The female plaintiff had claimed that Herrera engaged in wrongful contact with her.[29]
In 2004, Matthiessen stirred controversy when he started a private fundraising effort for three priests whom he had removed from public ministry.[30]
In January 2019, the diocese released a list of 30 clergy with credible allegations of sexual abuse.[31]
Thomas Joseph Drury, appointedBishop of San Angelo in 1961 and laterBishop of Corpus Christi
As of 2025, the Diocese of Amarillo had one high school,Holy Cross Catholic Academy in Amarillo, along with four elementary schools and one pre-school.[32]
35°11′57″N101°50′43″W / 35.19917°N 101.84528°W /35.19917; -101.84528
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