| Diocese of Monterey in California Dioecesis Montereyensis in California |
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The Mission Basilica San Carlos Borromeo is the second oldest church in the Diocese of Monterey |
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| Location | |
| Country | United States |
| Territory | Counties of Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Cruz, California, Region XI, United States |
| Ecclesiastical province | Archdiocese of Los Angeles |
| Metropolitan | Monterey, California |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Rite | Roman Rite |
| Established | April 27, 1840, reestablished October 6, 1967 |
| Cathedral | Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo |
| Patron saint | Our Lady of Bethlehem Saint Charles Borromeo |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Benedict XVI |
| Bishop | Richard John Garcia Bishop of Monterey in California |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | José Gómez Archbishop of Los Angeles |
| Emeritus Bishops | Sylvester Donovan Ryan |
| Map | |
| Website | |
| dioceseofmonterey.org | |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Monterey in California (Latin: Dioecesis Montereyensis in California) is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese in the United States of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in the Central Coast region of California. It comprises Monterey, San Benito, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Cruz counties.
The diocese is led by an ordinary bishop; the bishop's cathedra is located at the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo, the mother church of the diocese, in Monterey, California. The diocese serves close to 200,000 Catholics in 46 parishes and 18 schools.
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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, the Holy See 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. 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, creating 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.
Notable parishes in the diocese include the oldest stone building and the first cathedral in California, the Cathedral of San Carlos Borromeo [1], Mission Basilica San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, Mission San Juan Bautista, Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, Mission San Miguel Arcangel, and Holy Cross Church (the former Mission Santa Cruz).
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