The Diocese of Victoria in Texas () 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 southern

Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

in the United States. The Cathedral of Our Lady of Victory serves as the cathedral church. The diocese 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 Galveston-Houston In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

. The bishop as of 2024 is

Brendan J. Cahill Brendan John Cahill (born November 28, 1963) is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic church, Roman Catholic Church. He has been serving as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria in Texas, Diocese of Victoria in Texas since 2015. ...

Territory

The Diocese of Victoria in Texas covers the following counties:

Calhoun John C. Calhoun (1782–1850) was the 7th vice president of the United States. Calhoun can also refer to: Surname * Calhoun (surname) Inhabited places in the United States *Calhoun, Georgia * Calhoun, Illinois *Calhoun, Kentucky * Calhoun, Louis ...

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, DeWitt, Fayette (but only that portion west of the

Colorado River The Colorado River () is one of the principal rivers (along with the Rio Grande) in the Southwestern United States and in northern Mexico. The river, the List of longest rivers of the United States (by main stem), 5th longest in the United St ...

Goliad Goliad ( ) is a city and the county seat of Goliad County, Texas, United States. It is known for the 1836 Goliad massacre during the Texas Revolution. It had a population of 1,620 at the 2020 census. It is part of the Victoria, Texas, Metrop ...

Jackson Jackson may refer to: Places Australia * Jackson, Queensland, a town in the Maranoa Region * Jackson North, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson South, Queensland, a locality in the Maranoa Region * Jackson oil field in Durham, ...

, Lavaca, Matagorda,

Victoria Victoria most commonly refers to: * Queen Victoria (1819–1901), Queen of the United Kingdom and Empress of India * Victoria (state), a state of Australia * Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, a provincial capital * Victoria, Seychelles, the capi ...

, and Wharton.

History

1600 to 1982

The first Catholic mission in Texas, then part of the

Spanish Empire The Spanish Empire, sometimes referred to as the Hispanic Monarchy (political entity), Hispanic Monarchy or the Catholic Monarchy, was a colonial empire that existed between 1492 and 1976. In conjunction with the Portuguese Empire, it ushered ...

, was

San Francisco de los Tejas Mission San Francisco de la Espada (also Mission Espada) is a Roman Rite Catholic mission established in 1690 by Spain and relocated in 1731 to present-day San Antonio, Texas, in what was then known as northern New Spain. The mission was built i ...

. It was founded by Franciscan Father

Damián Massanet Damián Massanet was a Spanish Franciscan priest who co-founded the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro, the first missionary college in New Spain. Biography Not much is known of Massanet's early life, but he is trusted to have been born in Maj ...

in 1690 in the Weches area. The priests left the mission after three years, then established a second mission, Nuestro Padre San Francisco de los Tejas. near present-day

Alto The musical term alto, meaning "high" in Italian (Latin: '' altus''), historically refers to the contrapuntal part higher than the tenor and its associated vocal range. In four-part voice leading alto is the second-highest part, sung in ch ...

in 1716.Texas Almanac-Diocese of Tyler
/ref> In 1824, a Mexican missionary founded the City of Victoria on the Guadalupe River and established Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. In 1839, after the 1836 founding of the

Texas Republic The Republic of Texas (), or simply Texas, was a country in North America that existed for close to 10 years, from March 2, 1836, to February 19, 1846. Texas shared borders with Centralist Republic of Mexico, the Republic of the Rio Grande, an ...

Pope Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI (; ; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon enteri ...

erected the

Prefecture Apostolic An apostolic prefect or prefect apostolic is a priest who heads what is known as an apostolic prefecture, a 'pre-diocesan' missionary jurisdiction where the Catholic Church is not yet sufficiently developed to have it made a diocese. Although it ...

of Texas, covering its present-day area. The prefecture was elevated to a

vicariate apostolic An apostolic vicariate is a territorial jurisdiction of the Catholic Church under a titular bishop centered in missionary regions and countries where dioceses or parishes have not yet been established. The status of apostolic vicariate is often ...

in 1841, the year that Texas became an American state. The area would remain part of several Texas dioceses for the next 135 years.

1982 to present

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 ...

established the Diocese of Victoria in Texas on April 13, 1982. Its territory was taken from the

Archdiocese of San Antonio The Archdiocese of San Antonio () is a Latin Church archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the United States. It encompasses in the U.S. state of Texas. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of San Antonio had a self-reported 2018 population of 796,954, ...

, the Diocese of Galveston-Houston and the

Diocese of Corpus Christi The Diocese of Corpus Christi () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Texas in the United States. The Diocese of Corpus Christi is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the met ...

. The pope named Auxiliary Bishop Charles Grahmann of the Archdiocese of San Antonio as the first bishop of Victoria. As bishop, he created a consultation process that included clergy, members of

religious order A religious order is a subgroup within a larger confessional community with a distinctive high-religiosity lifestyle and clear membership. Religious orders often trace their lineage from revered teachers, venerate their Organizational founder, ...

s, and lay people to assist in diocese planning. In 1989,

named Grahmann as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Dallas-Fort Worth. Replacing Grahmann in Victoria in Texas was Reverend David Fellhauer from the same diocese, named by the pope in 1990. In 2004, the diocese was transferred from the province of San Antonio to the newly established Province of Galveston-Houston. After 25 years as bishop, Fellhauer retired in 2015. The current bishop of the Diocese of Victoria in Texas is Brendan J. Cahill from the

. He was named bishop by Pope Francis in 2015.

Sex abuse

On January 21, 2019, Bishop Cahill named three diocesan priests with credible accusations of

sexual abuse of minors Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (whet ...

. The investigation, run by an outside attorney, covered all allegations dating back to the founding of the diocese in 1982. One priest, Reverend David L. Collela, was retired and a second priest, Reverend Guido Miguel Quiroz Reyes, was deceased. The third priest, Reverend Alfred Prado, had been

laicized In the canon law of the Catholic Church, the loss of clerical state (commonly referred to as laicization, dismissal, defrocking, and degradation) is the removal of a bishop, priest, or deacon from the status of being a member of the clergy. The ...

and left the United States.

Bishops of Victoria in Texas

# Charles Victor Grahmann (1982–1989), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Dallas and later succeeded as bishop # David Eugene Fellhauer (1990–2015) # Brendan John Cahill (2015–present)

Education

High schools

* Sacred Heart High School – Hallettsville *

St. Joseph High School St. Joseph's School, St. Joseph's Catholic School, St Joseph's School, St Joseph's Catholic School, and variants are frequently used school names, and may refer to: Africa *St Joseph's School, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Asia * St. Joseph Higher Secon ...

– Victoria * St. Paul High School – Shiner

References

External links

Roman Catholic Diocese of Victoria Official Site
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Christian organizations established in 1982 Victoria in Texas Victoria in Texas 1982 establishments in Texas