The Roman Catholic Diocese of Tucson is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in the southwestern region of the United States. It comprises nine counties of the state of Arizona, making it the fifth largest diocese in the continental United States in terms of area. The counties are Gila, Graham, Greenlee, Pinal (excluding the territorial boundaries of the Gila River Indian Reservation), Cochise, Santa Cruz, Pima, Yuma, and La Paz. The diocese is currently led by its seventh bishop, The Most Reverend Gerald Frederick Kicanas. Bishop Kicanas was formerly a Chicago auxiliary bishop and chairman of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' Committee on Communications. He was elected Vice President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops on November 13, 2007.
The See of Tucson was established by Pope Pius IX as the Apostolic Vicariate of Arizona in 1868, taking its territory from the former Diocese of Santa Fe. The See of Tucson was canonically erected by Pope Leo XIII as a diocese on May 8, 1897.
The Diocese of Tucson filed bankruptcy in September, 2004. The Diocese of Tucson reached an agreement with the victims of sex abuse, which the bankruptcy judge approved on June 11, 2005, specifying terms that included allowing the diocese reorganization to continue in return for a $22.2 million settlement.
The sixth Bishop of Tucson, The Most Reverend Manuel Duran Moreno resigned in 2003 because of health reasons and died in November 2006.
Read more about Roman Catholic Diocese Of Tucson: Bishops, High Schools, Other Dioceses in Arizona
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