Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Fresno is a particular church of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in the western region (XI) of the United States, in the State of California. It is a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles. Geographically, the diocese consists of 35,239 square miles of the Southern San Joaquin Valley of California, a portion of the Sierra Nevada and some eastern valleys. The diocese consists of all of the Counties of Fresno, Inyo, Kern, Kings, Madera, Mariposa, Merced, and Tulare. The total population of the diocesan region is about 2.4 million inhabitants, of whom 581,000 were Catholic as of 2004. For administrative purposes the diocese is sub-divided into several deaneries: Fresno City, Fresno (rural), Hanford, Bakersfield, and Merced.

The see was created in 1967 by splitting the Diocese of Monterey-Fresno into two sees. Historically the area of the current diocese belonged to the Dioceses of Guadalajara, Mexico; Durango, Mexico, Sonora, Mexico; Californias; Monterey; Monterey-Los Angeles; and lastly Monterey-Fresno. Timothy Cardinal Manning (first Bishop of Fresno) and Cardinal Roger Mahony (Auxiliary Bishop) have both served in the diocese.

The current ordinary, Most Rev. John Thomas Steinbock, was appointed the fourth Bishop of Fresno on October 15, 1991, taking over from Apostolic Administrator Most Rev. Norman McFarland, Bishop of Orange. Since 1922 the diocesan see has been in the City of Fresno with the cathedra remaining at St. John's Cathedral (which also served as the see of the former Diocese of Monterey-Fresno). The diocese maintains 86 parishes, several charities, two high schools, numerous elementary schools, a small newspaper, television station (KNXT), retreat center and several cemeteries.

In 2003, the Diocese of Fresno was one of only four Latin Rite dioceses in the United States that did not participate in the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops review of the Charter for the Protection of Children and Young People. [1] However progress in the area of protecting youth was strongly apparent by 2005.