apostolic. On December 22, 1916, Pope Benedict XV elevated the Prefecture Apostolic of Alaska to the Vicariate Apostolic of Alaska. He appointed Crimont as its first vicar apostolic on February 15, 1917 and made him a bishop. In 1948, Pope Pius XII appointed Reverend Francis Gleeson of the Society of Jesus to lead the vicariate. 1951 to present On June 23, 1951, Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Juneau. He dissolved the existing vicariate and moved all of southern Alaska into the new diocese. The remainder of the state became the new Vicariate of Northern Alaska, with its episcopal see in Fairbanks. Pius XII appointed Gleeson as bishop of the new vicariate. On August 8. 1962, Pope John XXIII suppressed the Vicariate of Northern Alaska and replaced it with the new Diocese of Fairbanks, with Gleeson as its first bishop. On January 22, 1966, Pope Paul VI erected the Archdiocese of Anchorage and assigned the Diocese of Fairbanks to it as a suffragan. To assist Gleeson, Pope Paul VI on December 6, 1967,named Reverend Robert Whelan of the Society of Jesus as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Fairbanks. After Gleeson retired in 1968, Whelan automatically succeeded him as bishop. Whalen made numerous trips by bush plane, boat and snowmobile to remote Native American and Native Alaskan villages throughout the diocese. He established the Native Diaconate Program, ordaining 28 Native Alaskan men to the permanent diaconate. Pope John Paul II named Reverend Michael Kaniecki of the Society of Jesus as coadjutor bishop on March 8, 1984, Whelan's resignation as bishop of Fairbanks was accepted by the pope on June 1, 1985. Kaniecki automatically succeeded him at that time. Kaniecki died suddenly in 2000. On June 7, 2002, John Paul II appointed Reverend Donald Kettler of the Diocese of Sioux Falls as the first non-Jesuit Bishop of Fairbanks. Pope Benedict XVI appointed Kettler as bishop of the Diocese of St. Cloud in 2013 and replaced him in Alaska with Reverend Chad Zielinski from the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA. On November 12, 2019, the Vatican removed the Diocese of Fairbanks from its list of missionary dioceses, transferring control of the diocese from the Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples to the Congregation for Bishops. Zielinski said that he hoped the move would help the shortage of priests in the diocese. At the time of that announcement, the diocese had