Roman Catholic Diocese of Shreveport

The first Catholic missionary arrived in northwestern Louisiana from East Texas in 1717. The Franciscan priest Antonio Margil encountered Adaes Native Americans near present-day Robeline. At the tribe's request, he constructed the Mission of San Miguel de Linares, the first Catholic church in the region. Margil then journeyed to Natchitoches to minister to the French Catholics population there.[3]

After the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, all of present-day Louisiana became part of the United States. At that time, the new State of Louisiana was part of the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, with its see city as New Orleans. In 1825, the Vatican renamed this diocese as the Diocese of New Orleans. The town of Shreveport was founded in 1836.

In 1853, Pope Pius IX erected the Diocese of Natchitoches, removing the Shreveport area and most of Louisiana from the Diocese of New Orleans. Father Jean Pierre, parish priest at Bayou Pierre in Louisiana, started visiting Shreveport in 1856. He later persuaded Natchitoches Bishop Augustus M. Martin to move the Bayou Pierre parish to Shreveport, which happened later in 1856.[3] After working as a tutor to Protestant families for a year, Pierre built a wooden church in Shreveport. He completed a brick church in 1858. By 1869, Pierre estimated that there was a Catholic population of 1,000 in his parish.[3]

On his return from the First Vatican Council in 1870, Bishop of Natchitoches, Martin stopped in Brittany to recruit missioners. Five of those who responded, including Jean Pierre, died at Shreveport in the yellow fever epidemic of 1873.

In 1910, Pope Pius X erected the Diocese of Alexandria, which included the Shreveport area. In 1976, Pope Paul VI renamed the Diocese of Alexandria to Diocese of Alexandria-Shreveport. The Church of St. John Berchmans in Shreveport became a co-cathedral in that city.

Pope John Paul II erected the Diocese of Shreveport on June 16, 1986, taking its present territory from the Diocese of Alexandria-Shreveport. He appointed Auxiliary Bishop William Friend of Alexandria-Shreveport as the first bishop of Shreveport. Friend designated the Cathedral of St. John Berchmans in Shreveport as the cathedral church of the new diocese. Friend retired in 2006.

The second bishop of Shreveport was Reverend Michael Duca from the Diocese of Dallas, appointed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008. Pope Francis named him bishop of the Diocese of Baton Rouge in 2018.[4] Rev. Peter Mangum served as administrator until the appointment of Francis Malone from the Diocese of Little Rock.[5] Malone was named by Pope Francis in 2019.[6][7][8]

In 2020, the diocese has approved commencement of a cause for their canonization of Father Jean Pierre, a pioneer priest from the 19th century. Pierre and his colleagues have each been titled Servant of God.[9][10]

In December 2022, Father Rothwell Price, pastor of St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Parish, was named a Chaplain of His Holiness, with the title of Monsignor.[11]

A Tennessee man sued Reverend Donald Dickerson and the Jesuit Order in November 2010, claimed that he had been sexually abused by Dickerson. The assaults allegedly took place at St. John Berchmans Cathedral in Shreveport in 1982 before the diocese was erected.[12] He was also accused of sexually assaulting high school students from the Diocese of Dallas. The Jesuit Order expelled Dickerson in 1986 and he was later defrocked by the Vatican.[13]

The diocese reported in 2018 that it had received no allegations of sexual abuse from its founding in 1986 to 2018.[14] In 2020, the diocese was sued by a man who claimed it shielded a priest who sexually abused him as a child in the 1970s.[15]

In May 2021, Reverend Seby Shan Chemmampallil from Christ The King Church in Bossier City was arrested on two counts each of possession of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13, distribution of pornography involving juveniles under the age of 13 and sexual abuse of animals. The diocese immediately suspended him from ministry.[16]