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I told some people over the Thanksgiving break about the Diocese of Phoenix turning 40 today. All of them — 99% non-Arizonans — figured Phoenix was older than that, but it just isn’t so.

Our celebration cake.

Oddly enough, talk of Phoenix becoming its own diocese died down just before the announcement became official. Or at least, that’s what I heard more than once during interviews for the 40th anniversary article.

The diocese was established 40 years ago today. So, starting today and, hopefully, continuing through Saturday, I’ll share more reflections from local priests, religious and laity on “Phoenix at 40.”

The hope is to not only build a sense of heritage, but promote the diocese’s 40th anniversary book — which actually chronicles Catholics in the area since the 1500s — and promote the annual Honor Your Mother event Dec. 6 at the Diocesan Pastoral Center. The diocesan procession and Mass on Sunday will also celebrate the diocese’s birthday.

When word came that Phoenix had its own diocese:

• “I think people were happier to have the See being that much closer,” Claretian Father Daryl Olds, parochial vicar, Sacred Heart Parish in Prescott. Parishioners, like other “northern” Catholics, were part of the Diocese of Gallup. Claretians have been at the parish since 1915.

• “I could never understand why we were part of the Diocese of Tucson. I was very pleased that we were formed as a diocese,” said Phil Genovese, who came to the Valley in the late ’30s. “I just got the general feeling that people were enthused about it.”

• 

  Fr. Richard Felt reflects on 40 years as the Diocese of Phoenix

  “It came as kind of a surprise. It had been rumored for a long time. There was a lot of buzz,” said Msgr. Richard Moyer, who is now retired. “All the talk kind of quieted down and then, boom, it happened,” said Fr. Richard Felt, who was ordained earlier that year. Msgr. Michael O’Grady, now retired, agreed. “Nobody knew if it was rumors or truth or what.” He served on the priest personnel board for Tucson and they weren’t sure whether to follow through on recommendations for priest moves.

• Fr. Felt was working at Ss. Simon and Jude when Phoenix became a diocese. “I was home having breakfast with my mother and we hear on the radio that the Diocese of Phoenix was established and Ss. Simon and Jude was the cathedral. I lived there and I had no idea.”

• “I was probably one of the first to be told about the new diocese,” Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien said. He was parochiael vicar at St. Gregory Parish where the vicar general also lived. A former classmate living in the midwest where Phoenix’s first bishop was working, broke the news to Bishop O’Brien with a 6 a.m. phone call. “Do you know you have a new diocese?” he asked. Then the new bishop called asking to speak with the vicar general, who lived with O’Brien. “It was quite exciting,” the former bishop said, especially when he remembers putting a package on the vicar general’s desk a week prior that likely had the diocese’s formation paperwork in it.”

• “The priests were frozen in place. If you wanted to change, you had to find a priest that would switch with you,” Fr. Felt said. He remembers only Fr. Philip Poirier switching. He founded Resurrection Parish in Tempe, the diocese’s first original parish. “It was such energy. There was a whole lot of energy there. People went out of their way to help.”

• “There was great excitement and there was great excitement about who was going to come,” said Msgr. O’Grady. He was serving at Christ the King in Mesa.

• “I was here to experience the excitement and enthusiasm when Phoenix became a diocese. That brought a great era of excitement,” Sr. Raphael Quinn, IBVM, said. She heard the announcement on the radio. “There was a great sense of community.”

• “The diocese started with excitement,” said Fr. Tim Davern, who would be among the diocese’s first seminarians. “People were very ready to become a diocese. It was clear theat the area [Tucson] was to big for one diocese.”