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Diocese of Nashville

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Diocese of Nashville
Dioecesis Nashvillensis
Cathedral of the Incarnation
Cathedral of the Incarnation
Location
Country United States
Territory Middle Tennessee
Ecclesiastical province Louisville
Statistics
Area 42,222 km2 (16,302 sq mi)
Population
Total
Catholics 		(as of 2025)
2,973,403
126,251 (4.2%)
Parishes 61
Information
Denomination Roman Catholic
Sui iuris church Latin Church
Rite Roman Rite
Established July 28, 1837
Cathedral Cathedral of the Incarnation
Patron saint Saint Joseph
Current leadership
Pope Leo XIV
Bishop J. Mark Spalding
Metropolitan Archbishop Shelton Fabre
Map
Website
dioceseofnashville.com

The Diocese of Nashville (Latin: Dioecesis Nashvillensis) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in the central part of Tennessee in the United States. Erected in 1837, it is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Louisville. The bishop is J. Mark Spalding.

The Diocese of Nashville is the largest diocese in Tennessee by population. The Cathedral of the Incarnation in Nashville, Tennessee, is the seat of the bishop.

Statistics

The Diocese of Nashville encompasses 38 counties spread over 16,302 square miles of Middle Tennessee. As of 2026, the Catholic population in the diocese is approximately 128,250. The diocese has 61 churches served by 109 priests and 103 permanent deacons.[1]

History

1800 to 1850

In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Bardstown, a huge diocese in the American South and Midwest.[2] The new state of Tennessee, formed in 1796, became part of this diocese.[3] The first Catholic church in Nashville was Holy Rosary, constructed in 1820.[4] According to local history, contractors had brought Irish workers to Nashville to construct the first bridge in over the Cumberland River. However, they refused to work until they had a church to pray in. Eager to have a bridge, the local population donated land for the construction of Holy Rosary. It was built where the Tennessee State Capitol stands today.[5]

Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Nashville on July 28, 1837, taking all of Tennessee from the Diocese of Bardstown. The pope assigned the new diocese as a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.[6] Holy Rosary Church became the Cathedral of the Holy Rosary.[7]

Gregory XVI in July 1837 selected Richard Miles of Bardstown to serve as the first bishop of Nashville.[8] Arriving alone in the city, Miles did not have a bishop's residence to live in. He was forced to rent a room in a boarding house, where he almost immediately fell seriously ill with a fever. A priest travelling through Nashville nursed Miles back to good health.[9] His congregation consisted of approximately100 families scattered throughout the state. Miles traveled on horseback to meet with them.[9]

During his tenure, Miles ordained the first priest in Tennessee, and established a seminary and a hospital, run by the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth from Bardstown, and an orphanage run by the sisters of St. Dominic. Needing a larger cathedral, Miles constructed the Cathedral of the Blessed Virgin of the Seven Sorrows; he dedicated it in 1848.

1850 to 1880

In 1859, Pope Pius IX appointed James Whelan of the Dominican Order as coadjutor bishop of the diocese to assist Miles.[10] When Miles died in 1860, Whelan automatically succeeded him as bishop of Nashville.[10] During this period, Whelan enlarged Blessed Virgins Cathedral.[11] In 1860, he invited the Dominicans Sisters in Somerset, Ohio, to send a contingent to Nashville to start a school. The American Civil War began in 1861, with Tennessee becoming part of the Confederate States of America. In 1862, the sisters opened St. Cecelia Academy for girls. The next year, the sisters founded St. Mary's Orphanage in the city.[12]

By February 1864, stressed by the Civil War, Whelan resigned as bishop of Nashville. In December 1864, the sisters and students at St. Cecelia observed the two-day Battle of Nashville from the academy rooftop. During the battle, a Union Army chaplain and a local priest evacuated St. Mary's Orphanage before it was destroyed.[12] In July 1865, several weeks after the end of the war, Pius IX replaced Whelan with Patrick Feehan of the Archdiocese of St. Louis.[13]

Feehan began rebuilding the diocese, ravaged by the war. When St. Cecelia Academy went into foreclosure, he purchased the property and returned it to the Dominicans. During the summer and fall of 1866, Feehan worked to help the sick from a cholera outbreak in Nashville.[14] After the end of the pandemic, he invited the Sisters of Mercy in Providence, Rhode Island, to come to Nashvillee and live in a house he purchased.[14]

The diocese was hard hit by bank closures and the depression of 1873. To help his parishioners, Feehan encouraged a group of men to create a fraternal organization that would be known as Catholic Knights of America.[15] In 1877 and 1878, the diocese suffered yellow fever outbreaks, resulting in the deaths of 13 religious sisters and nine priests, including the vicar-general.[16]

1880 to 1900

In 1880, Pope Leo XIII appointed Feehan as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago.[17] The next bishop of Nashville was Joseph Rademacher from the Diocese of Fort Wayne, named by Leo XIII in 1883. Ten years later, Rademacher was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Fort Wayne by Leo XIII.[18] Rademacher's successor in Nashville was Thomas Byrne of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati, selected by the pope in 1894.[19]

By 1893, the diocese had a population of 18,000 Catholics, served by 38 churches with 30 priests.[20] Several members of the Daughters of Charity arrived in Nashville in 1898 to open a hospital. Byrne purchased a mansion for that purpose. Later that year, St. Thomas Hospital, named in honor of Byrne, was established. Today it is Ascension Saint Thomas West Hospital.[21]

1900 to 1930

Byrne's most significant projects was the construction of a larger cathedral. In 1902, he purchased a property for the new cathedral on the west side on Nashvile. The rectory was completed in 1908, along with the cathedral school building. Construction began on the cathedral in 1910. Byrne dedicated the new Cathedral of the Incarnation in 1914.[22] Byrne died in September 1923.[19] By the time of his death, the diocese had a Catholic population of 25,000, served in 58 churches by 53 priests.[23]

Pope Pius IX in December 1923 appointed Alphonse Smith of the Diocese of Indianapolis as the new bishop of Nashville.[24] When Smith came to the diocese, he found that it had only a few native priests and ten seminarians. Within two years, the number of seminarians from Tennessee had risen to 60; Smith ordained 26 priests during his episcopate. Several new parishes and schools were also established.[25] In 1925, Smith founded Father Ryan High School in Nashville.[26]

1930 to 1960

Smith died in 1935.[24] In 1936, William Adrian of the Diocese of Davenport was appointed the seventh bishop of Nashville by Pope Pius XII.[27] In 1937, Pius XI transferred the diocese to the new Archdiocese of Louisville from the Archdiocese of Baltimore.[28] That same year, Adrian founded the Tennessee Register, the diocesan newspaper.[29] The Cathedral of the Incarnation also underwent a major renovation in 1937.[30]

Adrian oversaw the creation of several parishes, the acquisition of a new episcopal residence in East Nashville and the establishment of a diocesan chapter of the National Council of Catholic Women. In 1954, Adrian ordered the racial desegregation of all parochial schools in Nashville and Davidson County, far ahead of public school desegregation in those areas.[31]

1960 to 1970

The Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia opened Aquinas College in Nashville in 1961 to provide a teaching education to its novices.[32] Adrian in 1962 organized the Nashville office of Catholic Charities USA.[33] In December 1963, Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Durick of the Diocese of Mobile-Birmingham as coadjutor bishop of Nashville to help Adrian.[34]

In April 1963, while still in Alabama, Durick and seven other colleagues wrote the letter "A Call For Unity". It called on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and so-called "outsiders" to stop the Birmingham campaign of protests and boycotts. The letter said that African-Americans should let the courts work toward racial integration. King responded to Durick's letter with his "Letter from Birmingham Jail". He voiced his disappointment with the white clergy, whom he felt should be "among our strongest allies". King's letter, along with the teachings of the Second Vatican Council, led Durick to become a strong voice for civil rights.[35]

While bishop of Nashville, Durick continued to express support for the American Civil Rights Movement. Some elements in the diocese labeled Durick as a heretic and communist, and organized boycotts of his public appearances in his final year. When Adrian retired as bishop of Nashville in 1969, Durick automatically became the new bishop.[34]

1970 to 2000

In 1970, Pope Paul VI erected the new Diocese of Memphis, taking the Tennessee counties west of the Tennessee River from the Diocese of Nashville.[34][6] Suffering from cancer, Durick retired as bishop of Nashville in April 1975.[34][35]

In April 1975, James Niedergeses of Nashville was appointed the next bishop of Nashville by Paul VI.[36] Niegergeses made numerous trips to rural parishes in the diocese and devoted much time to the building of ecumenical relationships with Jews and Protestants.[37] In 1988, Pope John Paul II created the Diocese of Knoxville, taking the eastern counties of Tennessee from the Diocese of Nashville.[6]

Niedergeses retired as bishop of Nashville in October 1992.[36] John Paul II replaced Niedergeses with Auxiliary Bishop Edward Kmiec of the Diocese of Trenton that same month.[38] During his tenure, Kmiec dedicated Pope John Paul II High School in Hendersonville.[39]

2000 to present

In 2004, Kmiec was named bishop of the Diocese of Buffalo.[40] The next bishop of Nashville was David Choby of Nashville, named by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005.[41] A 2014 study by the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., cited the Diocese of Nashville as having the 8th highest rate of Catholic conversions in the United States.[42] Choby died in 2017.[41]

Pope Francis named J. Mark Spalding as the bishop of Nashville in 2017. Spalding had previously served as vicar general of Louisville. Spaulding in March 2023 celebrated a special mass at the Cathedral of the Incarnation for the three children and three adults killed in the mass shooting at Covenant School in Nashville that month.[43]

Sexual abuse cases

In 1991, Ron Dickman left the priesthood. The next year, he was forced to resign as executive director of the Crisis Intervention Center in Nashville due to sexual assault allegations.[44]

David Brown, a Father Ryan alumnus, alleged in 2005 that Paul Haas, the biology teacher at Father Ryan, had sexually assaulted him several times in 1961 when he was 15-years-old. Brown had reported Haas to the diocese in 1996. Brown accepted a small financial settlement from the diocese.[45] The Tennessee Supreme Court in 2005 found that Giacosa and Bishop Niedergeses were aware in 1986 that McKeown "had sexual contact with approximately thirty boys over the past 14 years."[46] The diocese sent McKeown to inpatient treatment in Hartford, Connecticut, from October 1986 to March 1987. In 1989, McKeown presented a boy with a condom at a Christmas party. At that point, Niedergeses ordered McKeown to leave diocesan property. However, the diocese continued to pay McKeown until early 1994.[46]

Between 1995 and 1999, the Supreme Court noted that McKeown sexually abused two minor boys.[46] The boys' parents reported the abuse to the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department, who arrested McKeown. He was convicted of rape in 1999 and sentenced to 25 years in prison. McKeown died in prison in 2018.[47]

In February 2020, the diocese released the names of 25 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors while serving there.[48] Several were deceased and none were in active ministry.[48]

In 2024, the priest Juan Carlos Garcia-Mendoza was indicted on ten counts of sexual abuse crimes. The diocese in 2023 had received a report from a teenager that Garcia-Mendoza had touch him inappropriately. The diocese notfified the Tennessee Department of Children's Services and started its own investigation. After pleading guilty to multiple counts of abuse against several victims, Garcia-Mendoza was sentenced to seven years in prison. He also requested that the Vatican laicize him.[49]

Bishops

Bishops of Nashville

  1. Richard Pius Miles (1837–1860)
  2. James Whelan (1860–1864; coadjutor bishop 1859–1860)
  3. Patrick Feehan (1865–1880), appointed Bishop and later Archbishop of Chicago
  4. Joseph Rademacher (1883–1893), appointed Bishop of Fort Wayne
  5. Thomas Sebastian Byrne (1894–1923)
  6. Alphonse John Smith (1923–1935)
  7. William Lawrence Adrian (1936–1969)
  8. Joseph Aloysius Durick (1969–1975; coadjutor bishop 1963–1969)
  9. James Daniel Niedergeses (1975–1992)
  10. Edward Urban Kmiec (1992–2004), appointed Bishop of Buffalo
  11. David Raymond Choby (2005–2017)
  12. J. Mark Spalding (2018–present)

Other diocesan priests who became bishops

Education

As of 2026, the Diocese of Nashville has four high schools and 17 elementary schools.[50]

High schools

  • Chesterton Academy of the Incarnation – Franklin[51]
  • Father Ryan High School – Nashville[52]
  • Pope Saint John Paul II Preparatory School – Hendersonville[53]
  • St. Cecilia Academy – Nashville[54]

Colleges

Aquinas College – Nashville[55]

See also

  • List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States

Canonical status and jurisdiction

Diocese of Nashville is a diocese of the catholic church of the Catholic Church.[56]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

The Diocese of Nashville comprises the entire territory of the State of Tennessee. From its inland location and peculiar civil history, it has not profited much from the tide of immigration, and hence its Catholic development has been chiefly due to its own internal work. There is little need of consulting any historical references as to the growth of the Church in Tennessee since no such work of any importance exists. This is chiefly due to the fact that heretofore the diocese was in an embryo state and those who could write its history had neither time nor opportunity to do what was so much needed. Up to twenty years ago, or in the decade of 1880-90, much of the diocesan history could have been learned from the early pioneers of Catholicity, or their children, who were then living. The Diocese of Nashville was established 28 July, 1837, having been separated from the Diocese of Bardstown (now Diocese of Louisville) and the first Bishop of Nashville was Rt. Rev. Richard Pius Miles, consecrated at Bardstown, 16 Sept., 1838. Before this date there is no authentic record of any ecclesiastical missionary work in what is now the State of Tennessee, except in sporadic efforts. The earliest records attainable are two letters in the archives of Baltimore, dated 1799, to Bishop Carroll from Father Badin, concerning an offer from John Sevier, the first governor of Tennessee, that Father Badin might arrange for the immigration of at least one hundred Catholic families for whose maintenance the governor guaranteed separate tracts of land. The offer of the warrior-states-man was not accepted, however, although many distinctly Catholic names are to be found to-day among the inhabitants of east Tennessee, probably due to the fact that the insurgents of Ireland weresold into a species of slavery by the English government to the American colonists. That they or their children have fallen from the old faith of their fathers can be accounted for by the fact that the exiles had then neither church nor priests, nor Catholic schools. For a good many years the present writer has been seeking information as to early Catholic settlers and Catholic work, but must confess the evidence very doubtful as to whether the first priestly ministrations were in the neighbourhood of Nashville or Knoxville. Civic history and geographical position seem to give the preference to Knoxville. The first authentic records of a priest in Tennessee are contained in the archives of St. Mary's cathedral, Nashville, when Father Abell came (1820) from Bardstown to attend the few Catholics then living in Nashville. Shortly after his arrival, Father Abell undertook the building of the first church in Tennessee, at Nashville, a small building on what is now Capitol hill. The State Capitol now occupies the site. Father Abell visited Nashville as a mission for four or five years, and then (1849) Father Durbin took charge, and about the following year he was assisted by Father Brown who made Ross Landing (now Chattanooga) his headquarters, just previous to the advent of Bishop Miles. After a difficult journey on horseback and in a canoe from Bardstown, Ky., Bishop Miles took possession of his diocese and early in 1839, began his first episcopal visitation of Tennessee. At the end of his journey he declared that he did not find more than three hundred Catholics in Tennessee. In 1840, he again journeyed to Memphis to establish there the first church, under the management of Father McEleer; it has since been rebuilt as St. Peter's by the Dominicans.

In 1844 he laid the corner stone of St. Mary's cathedral, Nashville. In addition mission churches were established in outlying stations so that in 1847 Bishop Miles was able to report to Rome that he had 6 priests, 6 churches, 8 chapels, and a Catholic population of about 1500. In 1849 a church was erected at Jackson; in 1852 one at Chattanooga; in 1854 one at Knoxville; in 1856 one at MeEwen; in 1857 one at Edgefield (now East Nashville); in 1858 one at Shelbyville (later discontinued); and in 1858 one at Nashville (church of the Assumption). Bishop Miles died on 19 February, 1860, at the outbreak of the Civil War, and he was succeeded by Bishop Whelan. His diocese became the great theatre of war; his cathedral was converted into a hospital; his flock scattered. The burden proved too great for his strength, and in 1863 he was forced to resign. Two years later Bishop Feehan succeeded him. Under his jurisdiction, new priests were added to the diocese, new churches were built, especially St. Patrick's (1866), St. Bridget's (1870), and St. Joseph's (1875), all at Memphis. In 1881 St. Columba's church in East Nashville was built, to replace the old St. John's church, which was burned down a few years previously. In the decade 1870-80, mission chapels were erected at Humboldt, Belview, and Lawrenceburg; Bishop Feehan reported to Rome (1880) that his diocese had 30 churches of which 18 had resident priests, besides numerous stations. This was a rapid growth, when we consider the ravages of pestilence which visited the people during 1873, 1878, and 1879, and which buried from the ranks of the Catholics in Memphis alone, twenty-two priests and thousands of lay people. In 1880 Bishop Feehan became the first Archbishop of Chicago, Illinois. Bishop Rademacher succeeded him as Bishop of Nashville in 1883, but owing to ill-health his work was somewhat retarded, although some progress was made. During his administration St. Joseph's and St. Patrick's churches were built at Nashville. In July, 1893, Bishop Rademacher was transferred to the Diocese of Fort Wayne, Ind., where he died in 1900.

In 1894, the present head of the diocese, Bishop Byrne, was consecrated Bishop of Nashville, and his work has not only been that of restoration, but also of great progress; while the ranks of the clergy have been strengthened by the addition of many new men. Faithful and tireless in his energy, scholarly in his attainments, he has aroused the latent zeal in his clergy and people. Among his many undertakings may be mentioned the building of the new procathedral, the enlarging of the Assumption church and St. Joseph's church at Nashville, the building of.the Holy Family church for coloured people at Nashville, the rebuilding of St. Patrick's church, and the building of the Sacred Heart church at Memphis, the building of the Holy Ghost church at Knoxville, besides numerous mission chapels throughout the diocese. In addition to this he has directed the building or enlarging of various institutions of charity and learning. He also convoked, 10 Feb., 1905, the first synod of the diocese, at which 34 priests were present, with 7 unavoidably absent. Scarcely had the diocese been formed, when its bishops and priests recognized the need of these institutions, and with their untiring energy, asylums, hospitals, and schools sprang into existence. Chief among them may be mentioned first of all that every parish having a residential pastor has also a Catholic school, and in addition there are four academies for young ladies, St. Agnes (Memphis), conducted by the Dominican (Ky.) Sisters, established in 1850; the Sacred Heart (Memphis), conducted by Dominican (Nashville) Sisters, established in 1890; St. Cecilia's (Nashville), conducted by Dominican Sisters at their mother-house, established in 1860; St. Bernard's (Nashville), conducted by the Sisters of Mercy, established in 1868. For the higher education and technical instruction of coloured girls, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament (Pa.) conduct an academy at Nashville, established in 1905. The Christian Brothers at Memphis, since 1871, conduct a college for young men. For charitable institutions, there are two well equipped orphanages, one at Nashville and one at Memphis; St. Joseph's Hospital at Memphis, erected in 1885, is conducted by the Sisters of St. Francis, while St. Thomas' Hospital at Nashville is conducted by the Sisters of Charity from Emmitsburg. The Sisters of the Good Shepherd have a home at Memphis for the reformation of wayward girls, and the Little Sisters of the Poor have an institution at Nashville for the aged and infirm. There are also in the diocese the Franciscans and the Dominicans, each with a parish church at Memphis; the Josephite Fathers, having churches at Nashville and Memphis; the Paulist Fathers, with a Mission house at Winchester; the Sisters of the Precious Blood (Maria Stein), having a school at Lawrenceburg. Bishop Byrne has at present (1910) under his direction, 46 priests; 25 parishes with a resident priest and parochial schools, and under Catholic care in schools and institutions for children, about 5000 pupils; the total Catholic population is between 20,000 and 25,000.

References

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36°9′2″N 86°47′59″W / 36.15056°N 86.79972°W

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