Most Reverend Hubert Newell
1951-1978

Hubert Michael Newell (1951-1978), native and a priest of Denver, was named coadjutor bishop of Cheyenne, with the right of succession, on August 2, l947, and he succeeded to the office of ordinary at the death of his predecessor on November 8, 1951.  Bishop Newell began publication of the Wyoming Catholic Register (April 11, 1952).  In 1953, he persuaded the ladies of the long-existing altar and rosary societies to form the Wyoming Council of Catholic Women, a chapter of the national organization, with similar aims and functions as the Knights of Columbus.  Bishop Newell promoted the Catholic Youth Organization, holding in 1959 its first state convention.  He attended all the sessions of the Second Vatican Council convened by Pope John XXIII in 1962, and after the Council quickly mandated the prescribed liturgical changes, and in 1974 began commissioning men and women as lay ministers of the eucharist.  In 1972, the diocesan presbyteral council recommended that there be a mandatory retirement of pastors and that the tenure of pastors and assistants be limited to a defined term, recommendations which, when put into effect, ended an era during which pastors remained in the same place for life.  Bishop Newell set up a diocesan pastoral council and a board for Catholic education, the members of both elected by their deaneries.  Hubert Joseph Hart came to Cheyenne as auxiliary bishop in 1976, and in 1978 Bishop Newell resigned as ordinary, but remained as apostolic administrator until a successor was named.