Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford

During the 17th century, present day Illinois was part of the French colony of New France. The Diocese of Quebec, which had jurisdiction over the colony, sent numerous French missionaries to the region. It was estimated that 15,000 to 20,000 Native American converts and French trappers and settlers throughout the region were tended to by these Jesuit missionaries.[4]

After the British took control of New France in 1763, the Archdiocese of Quebec retained jurisdiction in the Illinois area. However, most of the French Catholics in the area migrated to Louisiana.[5]

In 1776, the new United States claimed sovereignty over the area of Illinois. After the American Revolution ended in 1783, Pope Pius VI erected in 1784 the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, encompassing the entire territory of the new nation. In 1785, the vicar apostolic, John Carroll, sent his first missionary to Illinois. In 1787, the Illinois area became part of the Northwest Territory of the United States. Pius VI created the Diocese of Baltimore, the first diocese in the United States, to replace the prefecture apostolic in 1789.[6][7]

When the Vatican erected the Diocese of Bardstown in Kentucky in 1808, it gained jurisdiction over the Illinois area. The jurisdiction over northern Illinois shifted in 1834 to the Diocese of St. Louis.[8] The first Catholic mass in Elgin was conducted by two French missionaries in 1837.[9]

With the creation of the Diocese of Chicago in 1843, northern Illinois was transferred from the Diocese of St. Louis. The Rockford area would be part of the Diocese of Chicago, followed by the Archdiocese of Chicago, for the next 64 years.

In Elgin, the first Catholic church, St. Mary's, opened in 1851.[9] That same year, Bishop James Van de Velde of Chicago purchased land for the first Catholic church in Aurora.[10] The first Catholic church in Rockford was St. James, founded in 1853. The first parochial school in the city was started in 1855.[11]

Pope Pius X erected the Diocese of Rockford on September 27, 1907. Its territory of 12 counties was taken from the Archdiocese of Chicago. The pope appointed Auxiliary Bishop Peter Muldoon of the Archdiocese of Chicago as the first bishop of Rockford. With the 1917 entry of the United States into World War I, Muldoon ministered to soldiers and recruits at Camp Grant, the US Army facility in Rockford. [12] He died in 1927.

Auxiliary Bishop Edward Hoban of the Archdiocese of Chicago was named by Pope Pius XI in 1928 as bishop of Rockford. During his tenure, Hoban opened many elementary and high schools in the diocese, modernized charitable institutions, and established a diocesan newspaper.[13] In 1942, Pope Pius XII appointed Hoban as coadjutor bishop for the Diocese of Cleveland.

The next bishop of Rockford was Reverend John Boylan, appointed by Pius XII in 1942. During his tenure as bishop, Boylan was able to reduce the diocese's debt while adding new parishes and schools to meet population growth.[14]In 1948, Pope Pius XII established the Diocese of Joliet and transferred Kendall County, Illinois, from Rockford to Joliet. After Boylan died in 1953, Pius XII named Reverend Raymond Hillinger to replace him that same year. Three years later, Pius XII appointed Hillinger as an auxiliary bishop in Chicago.

Auxiliary Bishop Loras Lane from the Archdiocese of Dubuque replaced Hillinger in 1956, appointed by Pius XII. Lane died in 1968, leaving Pope Paul VI to name Reverend Arthur O'Neill from the Diocese of Providence to take Lane's place. Bishop of Rockford for 26 years, O'Neill retired in 1994. Pope John Paul II made Reverend Thomas G. Doran the next bishop of Rockford. Doran retired in 2012.

The current bishop of Rockford is David Malloy, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2012.

In May 2002, Bishop Doran confirmed that Harlan Clapsaddle, a diocese priest, had sexually abused three brothers when they were children during the 1970s. When the boys complained in 1996 to the diocese, it removed Clapsaddle immediately after an investigation. The family said they urged Doran at that time to report Clapsaddle to the police and search for other victims, but he instead told them to stay silent about it. The brothers each received a $27,000 cash settlement in 1997.[15]

On November 15, 2018, Bishop Malloy released a list of clerics from the diocese who had been accused of acts of sexual abuse from 1925 to 1991.[16] In March 2019, Malloy revoked the priestly faculties of Joseph Jablonski, a priest of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart. While ministering in the Diocese of San Bernardino in California in 2014, Jablonski allegedly made remarks to a young boy that constituted sexual grooming. The Diocese of San Bernardino immediately reported him to authorities and banned him from ministering in its parishes. When Jablonski moved to the Archdiocese of Chicago, the Missionaries did not notify the archdiocese about his record in California.[17]

1. Peter Muldoon (1908-1927)
2. Edward Francis Hoban (1928-1942), appointed Coadjutor Bishop and later Bishop of Cleveland
3. John Joseph Boylan (1942-1953)
4. Raymond Peter Hillinger (1953-1956), appointed Auxiliary Bishop of Chicago
5. Loras Thomas Lane (1956-1968)
6. Arthur Joseph O'Neill (1968-1994)
7. Thomas George Doran (1994-2012)
8. David John Malloy (2012–present)

• Leo Binz, appointed Coadjutor Bishop in 1942 and later Bishop of Winona, Coadjutor Archbishop and later Archbishop of Dubuque, and Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis
• Timothy Lawrence Doherty, appointed Bishop of Lafayette in Indiana in 2010
• David Kagan, appointed Bishop of Bismarck in 2011