Diocese of Shreveport

1717 to 1800

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]

1800 to 1986

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. 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 to Louisiana from the First Vatican Council in Rome in 1870, Martin stopped in Brittany in France to recruit missionaries. Five of those who responded, along with Jean Pierre, died at Shreveport in the yellow fever epidemic of 1873.^{[citation needed]}

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.^{[citation needed]}

1986 to present

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. He retired in 2006.^{[citation needed]}

The second bishop of Shreveport was Michael Duca, appointed in 2008. He was made bishop of the Diocese of Baton Rouge in 2018.^[4] Peter Mangum served as administrator until the appointment of Francis Malone in 2019.^[5][6][7]

In 2020, the diocese started a cause for their canonization of Jean Pierre, a pioneer priest from the 19th century. The Vatican has named Pierre and his colleagues as servants of God.^[8][9]

Sexual abuse

A Tennessee man sued Donald Dickerson and the Jesuit Order in November 2010, claiming that he had been sexually abused by Dickerson.^[10] 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.^[11]