On December 11, 1948, Pope Pius XII issued a decree establishing the Diocese of Joliet. It was created from seven counties in Illinois:
DuPage, Kendall, Will, Grundy, Kankakee, Iroquois and Ford. Previously, DuPage, Will, Kankakee and Grundy counties were under the Archdiocese of Chicago; Ford and Iroquois were under the jurisdiction ofthe Peoria diocese, and Kendall County was in the Rockford Diocese.
Joliet became the fifth diocese to be created in Illinois and the 101st to be established in the United States. The Diocese of Joliet is approximately 110 miles long and 60 miles wide, extending from Roselle and Bensenville in the northern section of DuPage County to Gibson City and Paxton in the southern part of Ford County and from Wayne and Kinsman near the western line of the seven counties to Elmhurst on the Cook County line and Hopkins Park, near the Illinois-Indiana border in the east.
On May 17, 2011, Pope Benedict named Bishop R. Daniel Conlon, Bishop of Steubenville and a Cincinnati native as the fifth Bishop of the Diocese of Joliet and was installed by Francis Cardinal George on July 14, 2011, at the Cathedral of St. Raymond Nonnatus.
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