Archbishop Daniel Buechlein , the retired leader of the Indianapolis Catholic Archdiocese, has died at age 79. He was from Jasper.
The archdiocese says Buechlein died early Thursday at the St. Meinrad Archabbey in Spencer County where he had been living since his retirement in 2011 after a stroke left him too weak to stand on his own. An archdiocese spokesman says Buechlein’s health had declined over the past month.
Buechlein became the fifth archbishop of Indianapolis in 1992 following five years as bishop of the Memphis, Tennessee, diocese. He grew up in of Jasper and became a monk at St. Meinrad, including serving as president-rector of its college.
Funeral services weren’t immediately announced.The Indianapolis archdiocese has some 225,000 Catholics in 39 counties of central and southern Indiana.