Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey in California - History

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 Father 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.

In 1840, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of the Two Californias to recognize the growth of the provinces of Alta California and Baja California; Monterey was chosen as the see city, although Mission Santa Barbara served as the pro-cathedral. When created by the Holy See, this vast diocese included all Mexican territory west of the Colorado River and the Gulf of California (the modern US states of California and Nevada, and parts of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado, and the Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur). Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno, OFM, was the first bishop of the diocese, which was a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Mexico City.

In 1848 Alta California was ceded to the United States after the Mexican-American War, and the government of Mexico objected to an American bishop having jurisdiction over parishes in Mexican Baja California. The Holy See split the diocese into American and Mexican sections, and the American section was renamed 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.