Catholic Education Arrived Before Statehood in Oklahoma
Faculty and students are featured in this photo taken in 1905 at St. Mary School
in Quapaw Indian Territory.

By Eileen Dugan
The Sooner Catholic

By 1905, two years before statehood, 37 Catholic schools were already in existence in what was then Oklahoma Territory. As Catholic missions sprang up throughout the Indian Territories, Catholic schools were one of the first ministries established. Then, as now, parishioners realized Catholic education provided spiritual and academic growth for children growing up in a world of challenges.  

By 1955, when the diocese turned 50, the number of Catholic schools in Oklahoma had grown to 74. Towns such as McAlester and Okmulgee boasted two Catholic schools, each. Both Guthrie and Muskogee had three Catholic schools and a Catholic college. As the Diocese of Oklahoma celebrated its Golden Jubilee, Oklahoma City had 15 Catholic schools and Tulsa, 12.

An additional 50 years brought even more changes to Catholic education in Oklahoma: 26 Catholic schools were opened, but many more, 55, were closed.

Early in 1973, the statewide Diocese of Oklahoma was split into two smaller divisions: the Diocese of Tulsa, encompassing the eastern third of the state, and the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, the western two-thirds. The state’s Catholic schools were now located in two separate dioceses.

As the archdiocese celebrates its 100th anniversary in August 2005, 22 Catholic schools educate children and youth in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City and 22 in the Diocese of Tulsa. There are 19 Catholic elementary schools, two Catholic high schools and one Catholic preschool, instructing students in the western two-thirds of the state; 12 Catholic elementary schools, two Catholic high schools, and 8 Catholic preschools educate pupils in the eastern third of Oklahoma. Saint Gregory’s University, with its main campus in Shawnee in the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, remains the only Catholic college or university still operating in the state. Saint Gregory’s maintains a Tulsa campus in the Diocese of Tulsa.