Sources: St. Mary’s of Natchez: The History of a Southern Catholic Congregation, 1716-1988, Vols. I & II, by Charles E. Nolan, Ph.D., 1992. Catholic Hierarchy Website.
1952
1954
The school on the corner of Main and Union Streets is sold to and demolished by a commercial developer.
1956
December 18: The name of the Diocese of Natchez is changed to the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson.
1962
Vatican II is summoned by Pope John XXIII.
1976
December 2: Bishop R.O. Gerow dies and on the same day Bishop Joseph B. Brunini is appointed bishop of Natchez-Jackson by Pope Paul VI.
1977
March 1: The name of the Diocese of Natchez-Jackson is changed to the Diocese of Jackson.
1984
April 11: Bishop William Russell Houck is appointed bishop of Jackson by Pope John Paul II.
1998
September 25: St. Mary's Cathedral is designated a minor basilica by Pope Paul II.
2002
St. Mary's Basilica is restored by Conrad Schmitt Studios of Berlin, Wisconsin.
2003
January 3: Monsignor Joseph Nunzio Latino is appointed bishop of Jackson by Pope John Paul II.
March 7: Monsignor Latino is ordained bishop.
2007
The remains of Bishop Van de Velde, second bishop of Natchez, are exhumed from the cemetery at St. Stanislaus Novitiate, Florissant, Missouri, and reinterred in Calvary Cemetery in St. Louis, Missouri.
August: In accordance with his wishes to be buried in Natchez, the remains of Bishop John J. Chanche, S.S., and his sister, Mary Marcelline Chanche Edwards, are exhumed from the Cathedral Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland, and transferred to Natchez for reinterment. The marble monument marking his gravesite in Baltimore is dismantled and sent to Natchez to stand over their new resting place on the grounds of St. Mary Basilica.
2008
January 19: William Henry Cardinal Keeler, Archbishop Emeritus of Baltimore, Maryland, presides as main celebrant over the reinterment of Bishop John Joseph Chanche, S.S.
Related
Pope John XXIII
Vatican ll at 40
Conrad Schmitt Studios