Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey in California

History

The history of the Catholic Church in Monterey began with the establishment on the shores of Monterey Bay of Mission San Carlos Borromeo in 1770 by Saint Junípero Serra, OFM. Father Serra moved the mission to Carmel the next year, which served as the headquarters of the chain of Spanish missions in California.

With the papal bull Apostolicam sollicitudinem of 27 April 1840, Pope Gregory XVI set up a new episcopal see, to which he gave the name of Diocese of California. He assigned to it a vast territory taken from that of the Diocese of Sonora, now the Archdiocese of Hermosillo in Mexico. It included Alta California Territory (corresponding to the present-day states of California, Nevada, Arizona, Utah, western Colorado and southwestern Wyoming) and the Baja California Territory (the modern Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur). He set the episcopal residence at San Diego and made the diocese a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mexico City.

The first bishop of the diocese was Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM. Mission Santa Barbara served as the pro-cathedral.

In 1848 Alta California was ceded to the United States after the Mexican-American War, and the government of Mexico objected to a United States-based bishop having jurisdiction over parishes in Mexican Baja California. The Holy See divided the diocese into American and Mexican sections and, on 20 November 1849, with the episcopal residence moved to Monterey, a more central position for the new diocese, the American section became the Diocese of Monterey. The Royal Presidio Chapel in Monterey served as the pro-cathedral of the American diocese. In 1853 the diocese was split again, when Pope Pius IX created the Archdiocese of San Francisco, and Monterey was transferred to be a suffragan of the new archdiocese.

In 1859, the diocese's name was changed to the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles, due to the growth of the City of Los Angeles. The diocese was split in 1922 to form the Dioceses of Monterey-Fresno and Los Angeles-San Diego. In 1936 the diocese again changed metropolitan bishops, becoming a suffragan of the newly erected Archdiocese of Los Angeles. The latest territorial change for the diocese came in 1967, when it was split again, to form the present dioceses of Monterey and Fresno.

Ordinaries

The lists of Ordinaries and their years of service:

1. Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, 1840–1846
2. José Maria González Rubio, OFM, 1846–1851 (apostolic administrator)

1. Joseph Sadoc Alemany, OP, 1850–1853.
2. Thaddeus Amat y Brusi, CM, 1853–1859

1. Thaddeus Amat y Brusi, CM, 1859–1878
2. Francisco Mora y Borrell, 1878–1896
3. George Thomas Montgomery, 1896–1902
4. Thomas James Conaty, 1903–1915
5. John Joseph Cantwell, 1917–1922

1. John Bernard MacGinley, 1924–1932
2. Philip George Scher, 1933–1953
3. Aloysius Joseph Willinger, CSsR, 1953–1967

1. Harry Anselm Clinch, 1967–1982
2. Thaddeus Anthony Shubsda, 1982–1991
3. Sylvester Donovan Ryan, 1992– 2006
4. Richard John Garcia, 2007

Parishes

Notable parishes in the diocese include the oldest stone building and the first cathedral in California, the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo [1].

High schools