1879 to 1951

John Althoff from the Canadian Diocese of Vancouver Island established the first permanent Catholic presence in Alaska, then a U.S. territory. His superior, Bishop Charles J. Seghers, sent Althoff to Wrangell, Alaska, to serve that town, the Cassiar mining district on the Stikine River, and the former Russian capital of Sitka.^[2]

Althoff founded Saint Rose of Lima Parish in Wrangell, Alaska, in 1879. On visits to Sitka, he would celebrate mass in an old Russian carriage barn. After the discovery of gold near Juneau, Althoff moved his mission there. He celebrated the first mass and baptism in an interdenominational "Log Cabin Church" in 1882.^[3]

The Alaska missions continued to expand as more missionaries arrived in the region. In 1894, Pope Leo XIII erected the Prefecture Apostolic of Alaska in Juneau, taking all of Alaska from the Canadian Dioceses of Vancouver Island and New Westminster.^[4]

In 1916, Pope Benedict XV elevated the prefecture apostolic to a vicariate apostolic.^[3] He appointed Joseph Crimont, the prefect apostolic of Alaska, as its vicar apostolic in 1917.^[3]

Coat of arms of the former Diocese of Juneau

1951 to 1975

Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Juneau on June 23, 1951. The new diocese was carved out of the former Vicariate Apostolic of Alaska.^[5] The Anchorage area would remain part of the Diocese of Juneau and the remainder of the vicariate for the next 15 years.

Coat of arms of the former Archdiocese of Anchorage

During the second half of the 20th century, Alaska's population and business growth centered around Anchorage, even though Juneau remained the state's capital. In 1966, Pope Paul VI erected the Archdiocese of Anchorage and appointed Joseph T. Ryan from the Diocese of Albany as the first archbishop of Anchorage.^[6]

The new archdiocese took the territory "lying west of Mount Saint Elias and Icy Bay" from the Diocese of Juneau, along with the rest of the vicariate apostolic. ^[7][8] The pope designated the Church of the Holy Family in Anchorage as its cathedral church.^[9] The Dioceses of Fairbanks and Juneau were now the suffragan sees of the new Archdiocese of Anchorage.

1975 to 2020

After Ryan was named coadjutor archbishop for the Military Vicariate in 1975, Pope Paul VI appointed Bishop Francis Hurley of Juneau as the second archbishop of Anchorage.^[10]In 1981, during a brief airport layover in Anchorage, Pope John Paul II celebrated mass on the Anchorage Park Strip before 50,000 people.^[11] Hurley resigned in 2001.

To replace Hurley, John Paul II in 1991 appointed Bishop Roger Schwietz of the Diocese of Duluth as the next archbishop of Anchorage. As the archdiocese continued to grow, the Cathedral of the Holy Family became too small to host major diocesan services. Schwietz petitioned the Holy See in 2013 to designate Our Lady of Guadalupe Church as a co-cathedral, keeping Holy Family as the historic cathedral. The Vatican granted its approval in 2014.^[12] Schwietz retired in 2015.

Pope Francis in 2016 appointed Bishop Paul D. Etienne of the Diocese of Cheyenne as the next archbishop of Anchorage.^[13][14]He was named coadjutor archbishop for the Archdiocese of Seattle in 2019.

2020 to present

On May 19, 2020, Pope Francis announced the merger of the Archdiocese of Anchorage and the Diocese of Juneau into the Archdiocese of Anchorage–Juneau,^[15][16]The pope named Bishop Andrew E. Bellisario of Juneau at the same time as the first archbishop of Anchorage-Juneau. ^[17] The Diocese of Fairbanks became the only suffragan diocese of the new archdiocese.

The pope also designated the Cathedral of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Anchorage as the primary cathedral and the Cathedral of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary as the co-cathedral.The Church of the Holy Family in Anchorage lost its role as a cathedral when the merger took effect, but it continues to serve as a parish church.

As of 2023, Bellisario is the current archbishop of Anchorage-Juneau.

Bishops of Juneau

1. Robert Dermot O'Flanagan (1951-1968)
2. Francis Thomas Hurley (1971-1976), appointed archbishop of Anchorage
3. Michael Hughes Kenny (1979-1995)
4. Michael William Warfel (1996-2007), appointed bishop of Great Falls-Billings
5. Edward James Burns (2009-2017), appointed bishop of Dallas
6. Andrew Eugene Bellisario (2017–2020), appointed archbishop of Anchorage–Juneau

Archbishops of Anchorage

1. John Joseph Thomas Ryan (1966–1975), appointed coadjutor archbishop for the Military Services and subsequently succeeded to that see.
2. Francis Thomas Hurley (1976–2001)
3. Roger Lawrence Schwietz (2001–2016)^[19]
4. Paul Dennis Etienne (2016–2019), appointed coadjutor archbishop of Seattle^[20] and subsequently succeeded to that see.

Archbishops of Anchorage–Juneau

Andrew E. Bellisario (2020–present)^[21]

Archdiocesan priest who became bishop of another diocese

Michael William Warfel, appointed Bishop of Juneau in 1996

Sex abuse

The archdiocese was part of a sexual abuse settlement with the Archdiocese of Boston and other defendants in 2006. Five men in Alaska and Massachusetts had accused Frank Murphy of sexual abuse. Murphy left Anchorage for Boston in 1985, where he worked as a chaplain, after local police started investigating complaints against him. Bishop Hurley told parishioners that Murphy was being treated for alcohol abuse. Murphy was finally forced out of the priesthood in 1995.^[23]

In October 2018, Bishop Etienne said that he would establish an independent commission to examine the personnel files of the archdiocese over the past 50 years for any new credible accusations of sexual abuse by priests against minors.^[24] In January 2020, the commission released the names of 14 clergy and diocesan employees with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.^[25]