Las Vegas, Diocese of
LAS VEGAS, DIOCESE OF
From 1931 to the establishment of the Diocese of Las Vegas (Dioecesis Campensis ) in 1995, all the state of Nevada was in the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Reno. In October 1976, Pope Paul VI, in recognition of the growth in population and importance of the southern part of the state where the majority of Catholics lived, redesignated it as the diocese as Reno-Las Vegas. In 1995 when Pope John Paul II re-formed Reno as a separate diocese, Bishop Daniel Walsh who had been bishop of Reno-Las Vegas was appointed to the new diocese of Las Vegas. In May 2000 Bishop Walsh was transferred to the diocese of Santa Rosa and a year later Joseph A. Pepe was installed in Guardian Angel Cathedral as the second bishop of Las Vegas.
The Las Vegas diocese consists of Nevada's five southernmost counties. The diocesan newspaper is the Desert Clarion. It is a suffragan see of the Province of San Francisco.
[m. cunningham]