The Diocese of Fall River () is a
Latin Church
The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...
ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the
Catholic Church
The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...
in southeastern Massachusetts in the United States. It is a
suffragan diocese
A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandr ...
in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan
Archdiocese of Boston.
The mother church of the diocese is
St. Mary's Cathedral in Fall River. The patron saint of the diocese is
Mary, mother of Jesus
Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
. The current bishop as of 2025 is
Edgar Moreira da Cunha.
Diocesan statistics
The Diocese of Fall River spans
Barnstable, Bristol, Dukes, and Nantucket Counties. It also includes the towns of Marion,
Mattapoisett, and Wareham along the coast of
Plymouth County. The diocese covers
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...
and the islands of
Martha's Vineyard
Martha's Vineyard, often simply called the Vineyard, is an island in the U.S. state of Massachusetts, lying just south of Cape Cod. It is known for being a popular, affluent summer colony, and includes the smaller peninsula Chappaquiddick Isla ...
and
Nantucket
Nantucket () is an island in the state of Massachusetts in the United States, about south of the Cape Cod peninsula. Together with the small islands of Tuckernuck Island, Tuckernuck and Muskeget Island, Muskeget, it constitutes the Town and Co ...
.
The diocese in 2013 included 147 parish priests, 90 permanent deacons, 16 religious brothers and 295 religious sisters. It had 96 parishes, 11 missions, a health care center, and five nursing homes. The total Catholic population of the diocese was approximately 313,115.
History
1700 to 1808
Before the
American Revolution
The American Revolution (1765–1783) was a colonial rebellion and war of independence in which the Thirteen Colonies broke from British America, British rule to form the United States of America. The revolution culminated in the American ...
, the British
Province of Massachusetts Bay
The Province of Massachusetts Bay was a colony in New England which became one of the thirteen original states of the United States. It was chartered on October 7, 1691, by William III and Mary II, the joint monarchs of the kingdoms of Eng ...
, which included southern Massachusetts and
Cape Cod
Cape Cod is a peninsula extending into the Atlantic Ocean from the southeastern corner of Massachusetts, in the northeastern United States. Its historic, maritime character and ample beaches attract heavy tourism during the summer months. The ...
, had enacted laws prohibiting the practice of Catholicism in the colony. It was even illegal for a priest to reside there. To gain the support of Massachusetts Catholics to fight against the British, revolutionary leaders were forced to enact religious freedom for Catholics in 1780.
After the Revolution ended in 1783,
Pope Pius VI erected in 1784 the
Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, encompassing the entire territory of the new nation. Pius VI created the Diocese of Baltimore, the first diocese in the United States, to replace the prefecture apostolic in 1789.
1808 to 1900
Pope Pius VII erected the
Diocese of Boston on April 8, 1808, including all of New England in its jurisdiction. Bishop
Jean-Louis de Cheverus of Boston established St Lawrence's Church, the first Catholic church in
New Bedford
New Bedford is a city in Bristol County, Massachusetts, United States. It is located on the Acushnet River in what is known as the South Coast (Massachusetts), South Coast region. At the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, New Bedford had a ...
and in 1821 with the assistance of Portuguese sailors and Irish laborers.
The first Catholic church on Cape Cod was St. Peter's, constructed in
Sandwich
A sandwich is a Dish (food), dish typically consisting variously of meat, cheese, sauces, and vegetables used as a filling between slices of bread, or placed atop a slice of bread; or, more generally, any dish in which bread serves as a ''co ...
in 1830. Fall River received it first Catholic church in 1837 when St. John the Baptist was completed.
In 1869, the first
Portuguese language
Portuguese ( or ) is a Western Romance language of the Indo-European language family originating from the Iberian Peninsula of Europe. It is the official language of Angola, Brazil, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Portugal and São Tom� ...
parish in the country was started in Fall River.
The
Diocese of Providence was erected by Pope
Pius IX on February 17, 1872. The pope removed the counties of Bristol, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket in Massachusetts from the Archdiocese of Boston. The present day Diocese of Fall River area would remain part of the Diocese of Providence for the next 32 years.
1900 to 1950
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X (; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing Modernism in the Catholic Church, modern ...
erected the Diocese of Fall River on March 12, 1904. He took all of the Massachusetts counties from Diocese of Providence for the new diocese, making it a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Boston. He appointed
William Stang of Providence as the first bishop of Fall River. At the time of his appointment, the new diocese had 44 parishes serving 130,000 Catholics.
On May 8, 1904, St. Mary's Cathedral was packed with worshipers for Stang's first mass, with police detachments controlling the crowd, estimated at 25,000 people, on the street outside the building. During his tenure, Stang established eleven parishes and founded Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River. One of the new parishes was St. Boniface, a German parish in New Bedford.
After Stang's death in 1907, Pius X appointed
Daniel Feehan from the
Diocese of Springfield as the second bishop of Fall River that same year. During his 27-year tenure, Feehan became known as the "Benevolent Bishop", establishing 36 parishes. To assist Feehan,
Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX (; born Giovanni Maria Battista Pietro Pellegrino Isidoro Mastai-Ferretti; 13 May 1792 – 7 February 1878) was head of the Catholic Church from 1846 to 1878. His reign of nearly 32 years is the longest verified of any pope in hist ...
named Auxiliary Bishop
James Cassidy as coadjutor bishop of the diocese in 1934. Feehan died in office later that year and Cassidy automatically succeeded him as bishop.
Bishop Feehan High School in
Attleboro was named in his honor.
1950 to 1970

As bishop, Cassidy founded several homes for senior citizens.
In 1945,
Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...
appointed
James Connolly
James Connolly (; 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was a Scottish people, Scottish-born Irish republicanism, Irish republican, socialist, and trade union leader, executed for his part in the Easter Rising, 1916 Easter Rising against British rule i ...
from the Diocese of Providence to serve as coadjutor bishop to assist Cassidy. In 1948, the
Congregation of Holy Cross
The Congregation of Holy Cross (), abbreviated CSC, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of pontifical right for men founded in 1837 by Basil Moreau, in Le Mans, France.
Moreau also founded the Marianites of Holy Cross for women, n ...
founded
Stonehill College in Easton. In early 1951, Cassidy published a
pastoral letter
A pastoral letter, often simply called a pastoral, is an open letter addressed by a bishop to the clergy or laity of a diocese or to both, containing general admonition, instruction or consolation, or directions for behaviour in particular circu ...
forbidding girls
cheerleading
Cheerleading is an activity in which the participants (called cheerleaders) cheer for their team as a form of encouragement. It can range from chanting slogans to intense Physical exercise, physical activity. It can be performed to motivate s ...
at Catholic high schools in the diocese, citing what he termed the indecency of their outfits. He also banned football games at night.
Following Cassidy's death in 1951, Connolly automatically became the new bishop. Bishop Cassidy High School in
Taunton
Taunton () is the county town of Somerset, England. It is a market town and has a Minster (church), minster church. Its population in 2011 was 64,621. Its thousand-year history includes a 10th-century priory, monastic foundation, owned by the ...
, later renamed
Coyle and Cassidy High School following its merger with the all-male Monsignor Coyle High School, was named in Cassidy's honor. As bishop, one of Connolly's special concerns was with providing secondary education in the four urban areas of the diocese. He constructed four Catholic high schools during his tenure. Bishop Connolly High School
was dedicated to him in 1967. He also founded the diocesan newspaper, ''The Anchor''.
1970 to 2002

After Connolly retired in 1970,
Pope Paul VI
Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...
appointed Auxiliary Bishop
Daniel Cronin of the Archdiocese of Boston as the fifth bishop of Fall River. Cronin continued the work of implementing the decrees of the
Second Vatican Council
The Second Ecumenical Council of the Vatican, commonly known as the or , was the 21st and most recent ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. The council met each autumn from 1962 to 1965 in St. Peter's Basilica in Vatican City for session ...
and supported liturgical renewal, continuing education of the clergy and the restoration of the
permanent diaconate. He expanded Catholic Counseling and Social Services as well as the Family Life Ministry.
Late in 1991,
Pope John Paul II
Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005.
In his you ...
appointed Cronin as archbishop of the
Archdiocese of Hartford.
To replace Cronin, John Paul II appointed Bishop
Seán O'Malley of the
Diocese of St. Thomas in 1992 as the new bishop of Fall River. His main challenge was to settle the sexual abuse scandal in the Diocese of Fall River. He established an office for AIDS Ministry and two new residences for women, fostered vocations to the priesthood and reorganized the diocesan curia or administration. O’Malley created the Office of Pastoral Planning to assist him on merging parishes and assigning priests.
2002 to present
In 2002, John Paul II named O'Malley as bishop of the
Diocese of Palm Beach and appointed
George Coleman as his successor. In 2007, Coleman opened
Pope John Paul II High School in
Hyannis, the first Catholic high school on Cape Cod. He also created a directorship of Faith Formation, a youth ministry and a Marriage and Family Ministry.
Coleman retired in 2014.
On July 3, 2014, Pope Francis appointed Auxiliary Bishop
Edgar Moreira da Cunha from the
Archdiocese of Newark as the eighth bishop of Fall River. Da Cunha is the current bishop of Fall River.
Sexual abuse
In the early 1990s, revelations surfaced about how the Diocese of Fall River protected Reverend
James Porter from charges of sexual abuse between 1960 and 1964. In 1960, Porter was assigned to St. Mary's grammar school, where he was charged with managing the school's altar boys. Parents soon started filing complaints against Porter with the diocese. However, the diocese took no action against him until 1963; by that time, at least four parents had complained about Porter's inappropriate behavior with their children. The diocese then moved Porter to a parish in
Fall River without notifying police or the new parish about the allegations. More complaints were made against Porter.
In 1964, Porter was arrested on sex abuse charges. However, he was only sent out for inpatient hospital treatment. He left the priesthood in 1974 and started a family. In 1987, he served four months in jail in
Minnesota
Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...
for molesting his children's sitter.
Porter was arrested in Massachusetts in 1993. He was accused of abusing over 60 children in
North Attleboro and nearly 100 children elsewhere in the diocese.
Porter pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison, with the possibility of
parole
Parole, also known as provisional release, supervised release, or being on paper, is a form of early release of a prisoner, prison inmate where the prisoner agrees to abide by behavioral conditions, including checking-in with their designated ...
after six years. In December 1993, Bishop O'Malley acknowledged the diocese's protection of Porter and apologized to his victims. Denied parole throughout his sentence, Porter completed his prison sentence in 2004. However, he was not released pending a
civil commitment hearing. Porter died in prison in 2005.
A lawsuit was filed in 2014 against Archbishop Cronin of Hartford by two men who claimed they were sexually abused as young boys by Reverend Maurice Souza, a priest in
East Falmouth. The plaintiffs claimed that Cronin, then bishop of Fall River, failed to properly supervise Souza, who allegedly molested the boys during the 1980's in East Falmouth and on athletic trips out of town. In January 2019, Cronin and the two men reached a settlement, with each man to receive $200,000.
In December 2020, a
grand jury at Barnstable Superior Court indicted Reverend Mark R. Hession, also known as "Father Mark", on two counts of rape, one count of
indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14, and one count of intimidation of a witness.
Hession was known to many locals because of his past work at Our Lady of Victory Parish in
Centerville. Hession also worked closely with the
Kennedy family and even delivered the homily at Senator
Ted Kennedy's funeral in 2009.
The diocese in May 2023 settled a lawsuit brought by Jason Medeiros. Three years early, Medeiros had alleged that Reverend Richard DeGagne had sexually assaulted him when he was 12 and 13 years old in the 1980's at St Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford. The diocese suspended DeGagne from his priestly duties in 2019
Bishops
Bishops of Fall River
#
William Stang (1904–1907)
#
Daniel Francis Feehan (1907–1934)
#
James Edwin Cassidy (1934–1951;
coadjutor bishop 1934)
#
James Louis Connolly (1951–1970; coadjutor bishop 1945–1951)
#
Daniel Anthony Cronin (1970–1992), appointed
Archbishop of Hartford
#
Seán Patrick O'Malley (1992–2002), appointed
Bishop of Palm Beach and later
Archbishop of Boston (created
Cardinal
Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to
* Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds
**''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae
***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...
in 2006)
#
George William Coleman (2003–2014)
#
Edgar Moreira da Cunha (2014–present)
Auxiliary Bishops of Fall River
* James Edwin Cassidy (1930–1934), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Fall River (see above)
*
James Joseph Gerrard (1959–1976)
Other diocesan priests who became bishops
*
John Edward Morris (priest here, 1914–1921), appointed Prefect of Peng-Yang in 1930
*
William Otterwell Brady, appointed Bishop of Sioux Falls in 1939
*
Humberto Sousa Medeiros, appointed Bishop of Brownsville in 1966 and Archbishop of Boston in 1970; future Cardinal
*
Joseph Patrick Delaney (priest here, 1960–1971), appointed Bishop of Fort Worth in 1981
Education
Schools
*
Bishop Feehan High School – Attleboro
*
Bishop Stang High School – Dartmouth
*
Saint John Paul II High School – Hyannis
Closed
*
Coyle and Cassidy School – Taunton
*
Bishop Connolly High School – Fall River
Colleges
Stonehill College – Easton
Superintendents
The current Superintendent of Schools is Daniel S. Roy.
The following is a list of superintendents:
* George A. Milot, PhD (2001–2011)
* Michael S. Griffin (2011–2016)
* Stephen Perla (2016–2020)
* Daniel S. Roy (2020–present)
Landmarks
In addition to
St. Mary's Cathedral, two other major churches in the diocese are
St. Anthony of Padua in New Bedford,
Santo Christo Church and Shrine, and
St. Anne's both in Fall River.
The Diocese of Fall River is also home to the National Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette, owned and operated by the
Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette.
Suppressed parishes
Province of Boston
See also
*
Catholic Church by country
*
Catholic Church in the United States
The Catholic Church in the United States is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion, communion with the pope, who as of 2025 is Chicago, Illinois-born Pope Leo XIV, Leo XIV. With 23 percent of the United States' population , t ...
*
Ecclesiastical Province of Boston
*
List of Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
*
List of Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
*
List of Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)
*
List of Catholic dioceses in the United States
*
Plenary Councils of Baltimore
Notes
References
External links
*
Catholic Hierarchy Profile of the Diocese of Fall RiverCathedral of Saint Mary of the Assumption (Fall River)TheCatholicDirectory.com – Helping People Find Mass WorldwideNational Shrine of Our Lady of La Salette
{{DEFAULTSORT:Catholic Diocese Of Fall River
Organizations based in Fall River, Massachusetts
Catholic Church in Massachusetts
Christian organizations established in 1904
Fall River
Fall River
1904 establishments in Massachusetts