Jane Marrin, Director of Planning email: planning@gw.stcdio.org 214 Third Avenue South, P.O. Box 1248 St. Cloud, MN 56302-1248 (320) 251-2340 fax (320) 2510470

Bishop John F. Kinney was appointed the ninth bishop of the Diocese of St. Cloud on May 9, 1995. He was formally installed on July 6, 1995.     return to the Diocese of Saint Cloud Home Page

The Diocese of St. Cloud The Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Cloud encompasses 12,251 square miles in sixteen central Minnesota counties, with an estimated 1999 total population of 480,000. The diocese stretches more than 175 miles from east to west, including some of Minnesota's most rural areas along the North and South Dakota borders. It also includes one of the nation's fastest growing suburban corridors extending from Minneapolis northwest to St. Cloud. The Diocese of St. Cloud was canonically established in 1889 to serve the deeply religious nothern European immigrants, who were homesteading the prairies, and the Native Americans living in the region. The diocese currently includes 140 parishes with a combined Catholic population of 148,000. Sixty-nine of the diocese's rural parishes share a pastor with one or two neighboring parishes. Two priests serve one cluster of five parishes. Men and women of 16 different religious communities serve the diocese in its mission. Within the Diocese of St. Cloud, Catholic education is available in 32 elementary schools, four middle schools, two high schools, St. John's University, The College of St. Benedict, and St. John's Seminary and School of Theology. Catholic Charities of the Diocese of St. Cloud provides a variety of social services throughout central Minnesota. The diocese also contains 22 Catholic sponsored hospitals, nursing homes and assisted living residences. Return to Planning Office Home Page