Diocese of Evansville

The Diocese of Evansville (Latin: Dioecesis Evansvicensis) is a diocese of the Catholic Church in Southwestern Indiana in the United States. The mother church of the diocese is St. Benedict Cathedral in Evansville. The diocese was formed in 1944 from what was then the Diocese of Indianapolis. It is part of the Ecclesiastical Province of Indianapolis. The bishop is Joseph M. Siegel.

The Diocese of Evansville includes all or part of 12 counties in Southwestern Indiana. While surrounded by the Diocese of Evansville, the territory of St. Meinrad Archabbey is an enclave of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis.

During the 17th century, present-day Indiana was part of the French colony of New France. The Diocese of Quebec, which had jurisdiction over the colony, sent French missionaries to the region. The first French Jesuit missionaries came to the Vincennes area around 1675.^[1]

After the British took control of New France in 1763, the Archdiocese of Quebec retained jurisdiction in the Indiana area. In 1776, the new United States claimed sovereignty over the area of Indiana. In 1787, Indiana became part of the Northwest Territory of the United States.

With the creation of the Diocese of Bardstown in Kentucky in 1810, supervision of the Indiana Territory shifted there. In 1827, the bishop of the Diocese of St. Louis assumed jurisdiction in the new state of Indiana. In 1834, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of Vincennes, which included both Indiana and Illinois. Pope Pius IX created the Diocese of Fort Wayne for Indiana 1857.^[2] The Evansville area would remain part of the Diocese of Vincennes, succeeded by the Diocese of Indianapolis, for the next 87 years.^[1]

The Daughters of Charity in 1872 founded St. Mary's Hospital in Evansville; it is today St. Mary's Medical Center.^[3]In 1914, the Sisters of St. Benedict opened the St. Benedict Normal College to train teachers in Ferdinand.^[4]

Pope Pius XII erected the Diocese of Evansville from the Diocese of Indianapolis on October 21, 1944. The pope named Henry Grimmelsman, rector of the Pontifical College Josephinum in Worthington, Ohio, as its first bishop. Grimmelsman named Assumption Church in Evansville as his cathedral.^[1]

At the time of its founding, the diocese included five deaneries, 63 parishes and missions; it had a population of 49,737 Catholics, and 75 diocesan priests. The diocese purchased the John Augustus Reitz Home in Evansville from the Daughters of Isabella for use as the chancery and bishop's residence. In 1948, Grimmelsman conducted the first synod for the diocese.^[1]

The diocese grew rapidly after World War II; 12 new parishes were founded between 1944 and 1962 in the Evansville suburbs, Jasper, Fort Branch and Bloomfield. The diocese also elevated mission churches in New Harmony and Oakland City to parishes.

Central Catholic High School in Vincennes started classes in 1947; Today it is Rivet High School.^[5]The diocese opened Mater Dei High School in Evansville in 1949.^[6] In 1950, the Sisters of the Little Company of Mary opened Memorial Hospital in Jasper. This is today Deaconess Memorial Medical Center.^[7] Rex Mundi High School opened in Evansville in 1958.^[8]

The diocese constructed the following facilities:

• Magister Noster, a high school seminary, in Evansville
• High schools in Ferdinand, Loogootee
• A new facility for St. Mary's Medical Center in Evansville, sponsored by the Daughters of Charity

The population of downtown Evansville declined in the 1960s, forcing the diocese to close Assumption Cathedral in 1965. Holy Trinity Church, the home of the chancery since 1957, was named the pro-cathedral, for the diocese.^[1]

After Grimmelsman retired in 1965, Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Paul Leibold of the Archdiocese of Cincinnati as the second bishop of Evansville.^[1] Three years later in 1969, Paul VI named Leibold as archbishop of Cincinnati. The pope appointed Monsignor Francis Shea of the Diocese of Nashville as Leibold's replacement in Evansville.

Shea constructed a new mission church in Santa Claus, Indiana, in 1967. The diocese also expanded facilities at St. John Home in Evansville and the Providence Home in Jasper. The diocese also made these changes:

• Sold its high schools in Ferdinand and Loogootee to the local public school districts.
• Closed Rex Mundi and Magister Noster High Schools in Evansville. Rex Mundi went to Ivy Tech Community College and Magister Noster became the diocesan chancery.^[1]
• Closed St. Benedict College
• Consolidated the high schools in Vincennes
• Closed St. Ann Mission in Shelburn in 1978
• Closed Our Lady of Perpetual Help Mission in Dugger in 1982

When Shea retired in 1989, Pope John Paul II named Monsignor Gerald Gettelfinger of the Archdiocese of Indianapolis as the next bishop of Evansville.^[1] Several parishes built new churches in the 1990s, and the Santa Claus mission became a parish. As the number of priests began to decline and the Catholic population shifted to suburban areas, the diocese in 1997 closed St. Patrick Parish in Corning, St. Mary Parish in Barr Township and St. Michael Parish in Montgomery. The St. Patrick and St. Mary Churches were redesignated as chapels while St. Michael was razed. In 1999, Gettelfinger named St. Benedict, the largest church in Evansville, as the new cathedral for the diocese.^[1]

Recognizing the influx of Hispanic Catholics into the diocese, Gettelfinger opened a Hispanic ministry in 2000. Although the number of priests continued to decrease, the diocese began to ordain several large classes of permanent deacons. In 2008, the diocese merged St. Mary and St. Simon Parishes in Washington into Our Lady of Hope Parish, then demolished the St. Mary church.^[1] The diocese began a formal planning process in 2009 to allocate resources for the future. Pope John Paul II High School opened in Jasper in 2009, but closed in 2012 due to low enrollment.

In 2011, Pope Benedict XVI named Monsignor Charles C. Thompson of the Archdiocese of Louisville as the fifth bishop of the diocese, replacing Gettelfinger.^[1]

Emily Herx, a teacher for the diocesan schools, sued the diocese in 2011, claiming that it had discriminated against her because she was a woman. The diocese terminated Herx when it learned that she was undergoing in vitro fertilization to become pregnant.^[9] A jury awarded Herx $2 million in 2014.^[10]

In 2014, Thompson merged 19 parishes into eight parishes.^[1] The diocese also prohibited priests from celebrating more that three masses per Sunday, including the Saturday evening vigil. For some churches in the newly merged parishes, it meant no Sunday masses at all.^[11] The diocese in 2015 merged seven more parishes into three parishes.^[1]

Pope Francis appointed Thompson as archbishop of Indianapolis in 2017 and replaced him in Evansville with Auxiliary Bishop Joseph M. Siegel from the Diocese of Joliet.^[1] In 2018, the diocese began renovations of St. Benedict Cathedral.^[1] As of 2026, Siegel is the current bishop of Evansville.

Bishop Siegel in February 2019 released a list of ten clerics in the diocese who faced credible accusations of sexual assault against minors.^[12]

In 2007, Fredy Mendez-Morales had sex with a developmentally disabled young woman at a youth camp run by the diocese. The priest pleaded guilty, was sentenced to ten years in prison, and was deported after his release. The girl's mother, Silvia Gameros, sued the diocese in 2009, claiming that it was negligent in supervising the girl at camp. Gameros and the diocese reached a settlement in 2013.^[13][14]

1. Henry Joseph Grimmelsmann (1944–1965)
2. Paul Francis Leibold (1966–1969), appointed Archbishop of Cincinnati
3. Francis Raymond Shea (1969–1989)
4. Gerald Andrew Gettelfinger (1989–2011)
5. Charles Coleman Thompson (2011–2017), appointed Archbishop of Indianapolis
6. Joseph M. Siegel (2017–present)

Parish names in bold print. Except where otherwise indicated, a parish consists of a single church bearing the same name.

• Mater Dei High School – Evansville
• Reitz Memorial High School – Evansville
• Rivet Middle/High School – Vincennes
• Washington Catholic Middle/High School – Washington

• Roman Catholic Diocese of Evansville Official Site
• GCatholic, with Google map - data for most sections

37°58′38″N 87°33′02″W / 37.97722°N 87.55056°W / 37.97722; -87.55056