The Diocese of San Bernardino (, ) is a

Latin Church The Latin Church () is the largest autonomous () particular church within the Catholic Church, whose members constitute the vast majority of the 1.3 billion Catholics. The Latin Church is one of 24 Catholic particular churches and liturgical ...

ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, in

Southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and Cultural area, cultural List of regions of California, region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Its densely populated coastal reg ...

in the United States. Erected by

Pope Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

on July 14, 1978, its jurisdiction extends over

San Bernardino San Bernardino ( ) is a city in and the county seat of San Bernardino County, California, United States. Located in the Inland Empire region of Southern California, the city had a population of 222,101 in the 2020 census, making it the List of ...

and Riverside counties. , the diocese had 92

parish A parish is a territorial entity in many Christianity, Christian denominations, constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of a priest#Christianity, priest, often termed a parish pries ...

es and 12 missions in its territory. Its

cathedral A cathedral is a church (building), church that contains the of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, Annual conferences within Methodism, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually s ...

is Our Lady of the Rosary Cathedral in San Bernardino. The Diocese of San Bernardino is a

suffragan diocese A suffragan diocese is one of the dioceses other than the metropolitan archdiocese that constitute an ecclesiastical province. It exists in some Christian denominations, in particular the Catholic Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandr ...

in the

ecclesiastical province An ecclesiastical province is one of the basic forms of jurisdiction in Christian churches, including those of both Western Christianity and Eastern Christianity, that have traditional hierarchical structures. An ecclesiastical province consist ...

of the metropolitan

Archdiocese of Los Angeles The Archdiocese of Los Angeles (, ) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church located in the southern coastal portion of the U.S. state of California. The archdiocese's cathedra is in Los Angeles, and the arc ...

Demographics

In 2019, the Diocese of San Bernardino reported a population of 1,740,655 Catholics, a 22,000 increase from the previous year. That made San Bernardino the fifth largest Catholic diocese in the United States. The main cause of this increase was thought to be the increasing migration of

Hispanics The term Hispanic () are people, cultures, or countries related to Spain, the Spanish language, or broadly. In some contexts, especially within the United States, "Hispanic" is used as an ethnic or meta-ethnic term. The term commonly appli ...

to the area in part due to the economic opportunities and affordable housing in comparison to the rest of California.

History

1800 to 1821

During the 18th century, the San Bernardino and Riverside areas were part of the province of

Las Californias The Californias (), occasionally known as the Three Californias or the Two Californias, are a region of North America spanning the United States and Mexico, consisting of the U.S. state of California and the Mexican states of Baja California an ...

in the Spanish colony of

New Spain New Spain, officially the Viceroyalty of New Spain ( ; Nahuatl: ''Yankwik Kaxtillan Birreiyotl''), originally the Kingdom of New Spain, was an integral territorial entity of the Spanish Empire, established by Habsburg Spain. It was one of several ...

. In 1804, the Spanish split the Province of California into two territories: * Alta California (Upper California), including the modern American states of

California California () is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States that lies on the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. It borders Oregon to the north, Nevada and Arizona to the east, and shares Mexico–United States border, an ...

Nevada Nevada ( ; ) is a landlocked state in the Western United States. It borders Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. Nevada is the seventh-most extensive, th ...

Arizona Arizona is a U.S. state, state in the Southwestern United States, Southwestern region of the United States, sharing the Four Corners region of the western United States with Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. It also borders Nevada to the nort ...

, and

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

, along with western

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

and southwestern

Wyoming Wyoming ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States, Western United States. It borders Montana to the north and northwest, South Dakota and Nebraska to the east, Idaho t ...

Baja California Territory Baja California Territory (Territorio de Baja California) was a federal territory of Mexico that existed from 1824 to 1853, and 1854 to 1931; it encompassed the Baja California peninsula of present-day northwestern part of the country. It re ...

(Lower California), including the modern Mexican states of

Baja California Baja California, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California, is a state in Mexico. It is the northwesternmost of the 32 federal entities of Mexico. Before becoming a state in 1952, the area was known as the North Territory of B ...

and

Baja California Sur Baja California Sur, officially the Free and Sovereign State of Baja California Sur, is a state in Mexico. It is the 31st and last state to be admitted, in 1974. It is also the second least populated Mexican state and the ninth-largest state by ...

Spanish missionaries from the

Mission San Gabriel Arcángel Mission San Gabriel Arcángel () is a Californian mission and historic landmark in San Gabriel, California. It was founded by the Spanish Empire on the Nativity of Mary September 8, 1771, as the fourth of what would become twenty-one Spanish mi ...

in present-day Los Angeles established the first church in the San Bernardino area in 1810 at the village of Wa'aachnga, later Politania, between what is now San Bernardino and Colton. Reverend

Francisco Dumetz Francisco Dumetz (died 14 January 1811) was a Spanish Franciscan missionary. He gave the San Bernardino Valley in California its name, in 1810. Life He was a native of Majorca, Spain, where he entered the Franciscan Order. In May, 1770, he went to ...

named the church San Bernardino after the feast day of St. Bernardino of Siena. The

Franciscans The Franciscans are a group of related organizations in the Catholic Church, founded or inspired by the Italian saint Francis of Assisi. They include three independent religious orders for men (the Order of Friars Minor being the largest conte ...

also named the

San Bernardino Mountains The San Bernardino Mountains are a high and rugged mountain range in Southern California in the United States. Situated north and northeast of San Bernardino and spanning two California counties, the range tops out at at San Gorgonio Mountain ...

. The first European settlement in present-day

Riverside County Riverside County is a county located in the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, its population was 2,418,185, making it the fourth-most populous county in California and the 10th-most populous in the Unit ...

was an estancia, or farmer, established by the

Mission San Luis Rey de Francia Mission San Luis Rey de Francia () is a former Spanish mission in San Luis Rey, a neighborhood in Oceanside, California. This Mission lent its name to the Luiseño tribe of Mission Indians. At its prime, Mission San Luis Rey's structures an ...

at the Luiseño village of Temescal. In 1819, Franciscan missionaries established the

San Bernardino de Sena Estancia The San Bernardino de Sena Estancia (also known as the San Bernardino Rancho or Asistencia) was a ranch outpost of Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in what is now Redlands, California, United States. It was built to graze cattle, and for Indian r ...

in what is today Redlands. After the

Mexican War of Independence The Mexican War of Independence (, 16 September 1810 – 27 September 1821) was an armed conflict and political process resulting in Mexico's independence from the Spanish Empire. It was not a single, coherent event, but local and regional ...

ended in 1821, Alta California became part of Mexico. The Mexican Government in 1835 secularized all the Catholic missions in Alta California, including the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia.

1821 to 1859

In 1840, Pope

Gregory XVI Pope Gregory XVI (; ; born Bartolomeo Alberto Cappellari; 18 September 1765 – 1 June 1846) was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 2 February 1831 to his death in June 1846. He had adopted the name Mauro upon enteri ...

set up the Diocese of California. The new diocese included both Alta California and Baja California. Gregory XVI set the episcopal see at present-day

San Diego San Diego ( , ) is a city on the Pacific coast of Southern California, adjacent to the Mexico–United States border. With a population of over 1.4 million, it is the List of United States cities by population, eighth-most populous city in t ...

in Alta California. The first bishop of the new diocese was

Francisco Garcia Diego y Moreno Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...

. Moreno designated the

Mission Santa Barbara Mission Santa Barbara () is a Spanish missions in California, Spanish mission in Santa Barbara, California, United States. Often referred to as the 'Queen of the Missions', it was founded by Padre Fermín Lasuén for the Franciscan order on Decem ...

in Santa Barbara as his

pro-cathedral A pro-cathedral or procathedral is a parish Church (building), church that temporarily serves as the cathedral or co-cathedral of a diocese, or a church that has the same function in a Catholic missionary jurisdiction (such as an apostolic prefect ...

. After ceding Alta California to the United States at the close of the

Mexican–American War The Mexican–American War (Spanish language, Spanish: ''guerra de Estados Unidos-México, guerra mexicano-estadounidense''), also known in the United States as the Mexican War, and in Mexico as the United States intervention in Mexico, ...

in 1848, the government of Mexico objected to San Diego, a see city now located in the United States, having jurisdiction over Mexican parishes. In response, the Vatican divided the Diocese of California into American and Mexican sections in 1849. The American section became the Diocese of Monterey; the see city was moved to Monterey because of its more central location. The Royal Presidio Chapel in Monterey became the cathedral of the new American diocese.

1859 to 1978

In 1859, Pius IX renamed the Diocese of Monterey as the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles to recognize the growth of

Los Angeles Los Angeles, often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, most populous city in the U.S. state of California, and the commercial, Financial District, Los Angeles, financial, and Culture of Los Angeles, ...

; the see was transferred to Los Angeles in 1876. St. Francis de Sales, the first parish in Riverside County, was established in 1886. In 1922, the Vatican divided the diocese again, with the southern portion becoming the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego. The Diocese of San Diego was erected in 1936, including San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. These two counties would remain part of the Diocese of San Diego for the next 42 years.

1978 to present

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

erected the Diocese of San Bernardino on November 6, 1978, taking San Bernardino and Riverside Counties from the Diocese of San Diego. He appointed Reverend Phillip Straling of San Diego as the first bishop of San Bernardino. During Straling's episcopate, the diocese grew from about 235,000 people to 800,000, and from 85 parishes to 105. For the formation for ministry, he established a

diaconate A deacon is a member of the diaconate, an office in Christian churches that is generally associated with service of some kind, but which varies among theological and denominational traditions. Major Christian denominations, such as the Catholi ...

program, and started the Straling Institute in 1980 for laymen. In 1995, John Paul II named Straling as bishop of the Diocese of Reno and replaced him in San Bernardino with Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Barnes. Under Barnes, the diocese operated three high schools, twenty-three elementary schools and three pre-schools. In 2001, Barnes inaugurated the Annual Bishop's Golf Classic to fund scholarships to families who are unable to afford a Catholic education for their children. During his tenure, Barnes closed four primary schools in the California communities of Barstow, Banning, Apple Valley and San Bernardino. The high desert portion of the diocese currently has no Catholic schools.In 2019, Auxiliary Bishop

Alberto Rojas Alberto Rojas (born January 5, 1965) is a Mexican-born prelate of the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church who has been serving as bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino, Diocese of San Bernardino in Southern California since ...

of the

Archdiocese of Chicago The Archdiocese of Chicago () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction, an archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church located in Northeastern Illinois, in the United States. The Vatican erected it as a diocese in 1843 and elevated it to an ar ...

was appointed as

coadjutor bishop A coadjutor bishop (or bishop coadjutor) ("co-assister" in Latin) is a bishop in the Latin Catholic, Anglican and (historically) Eastern Orthodox churches whose main role is to assist the diocesan bishop in administering the diocese. The coa ...

of the Diocese of San Bernardino by

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

to assist Barnes. When Barnes retired in 2020, Rojas automatically succeeded him as bishop. In May 2023 seven priests were ordained for San Bernardino, the largest number of ordinations in the diocese's history. As of 2023, the current bishop of San Bernardino is Alberto Rojas.

Sex abuse

Former Monsignor Patrick O'Keefe was charged in August 2002 with 15 felony counts of oral copulation with a minor. Then serving in the Diocese of San Diego, O'Keefe fled to Ireland and was never arrested. The alleged victim, then a 17 year old girl, said she was abused by O'Keefe in 1972. She reported the abuse to the diocese in 1989, but it did nothing. The diocese finally removed O'Keefe from ministry in 1994 after receiving abuse reports from other women; at that time, the diocese reached a settlement with one of his victims. In July 2003, a

US Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all Federal tribunals in the United States, U.S. federal court cases, and over Stat ...

ruling on a California law forced prosecutors to drop the O'Keefe case. In April 2003, the Diocese of San Bernardino sued the

Archdiocese of Boston The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Boston () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or archdiocese, of the Catholic Church in eastern Massachusetts in the United States. Its mother church is the Cathedral of the Holy Cross (Boston), Cathedral o ...

. The diocese charged that the archdiocese gave them false information on Paul R. Shanley, a priest who transferred to San Bernardino from Boston in 1990. The archdiocese had sent Shanley to California to recover from various ailments and practices ministry part time. Despite Shanley having a record of

sexual abuse Sexual abuse or sex abuse is abusive sexual behavior by one person upon another. It is often perpetrated using physical force, or by taking advantage of another. It often consists of a persistent pattern of sexual assaults. The offender is re ...

of minors in Massachusetts, the archdiocese described him to the diocese as "a priest in good standing". In 1990, Shanley was accused of abusing a male teenager at Cabana Club Resort, a gay-oriented hotel that Shanley and another priest owned in

Palm Springs Palm Springs (Cahuilla language, Cahuilla: ''Séc-he'') is a desert resort city in Riverside County, California, United States, within the Colorado Desert's Coachella Valley. The city covers approximately , making it the largest city in Rivers ...

. In 2002, Shanley was extradited from California to Massachusetts to face sexual assault charges there. In July 2003, after speaking to the new archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley, Barnes decided to drop the lawsuit. Reverend Joseph Jablonski, a visiting priest with the

Missionaries of the Sacred Heart The Missionaries of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (MSC; ; ) are a missionary congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded in 1854 by Jules Chevalier at Issoudun, France, in the Diocese of Bourges. The motto of the Missionaries of the S ...

, was removed from ministry in the diocese in 2014. The diocese had received a complaint that Jablonski had been

grooming A groom (short for bridegroom) is a male participant in a wedding ceremony. Groom or grooming may also refer to: Occupations * Groom (profession), a person responsible for the feeding and care of horses * One of the competitors in combined drivi ...

a young man for a possible sexual encounter. His order sent Jablonski to treatment, then assigned him again to ministry. Jablonski worked in three Illinois dioceses until 2018, when his name appeared on the San Bernardino list of credibly accused priests. Reverend Marcelo De Jesumaria of

Arrowhead An arrowhead or point is the usually sharpened and hardened tip of an arrow, which contributes a majority of the projectile mass and is responsible for impacting and penetrating a target, or sometimes for special purposes such as signaling. ...

was convicted in May 2015 of sexually abusing a female passenger during an August 2014 flight from Philadelphia to Los Angeles. After waking from a nap, the victim realized that De Jesumaria was groping her breast and groin. He was arrested after the plane arrived in Los Angeles. In August 2015, he was sentenced to six months in prison and six months of

home detention House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays Electronic tagging, electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The p ...

. De Jesumaria was immediately suspended from ministry after his arrest. In 2018, the diocese released a list of 34 priests with credible accusations of

sexual abuse of minors Child sexual abuse (CSA), also called child molestation, is a form of child abuse in which an adult or older adolescent uses a child for sexual stimulation. Forms of child sexual abuse include engaging in sexual activities with a child (whet ...

since the founding of the diocese in 1978. The diocese announced in May 2019 its participation with other Southern California dioceses in a voluntary compensation plan for victims of sexual abuse by clergy. Nick Flores in December 2019 sued the diocese, claimed that he had been sexually abused by Reverend Louis Perreault at Our Lady of the Valley Church in

Hemet Hemet is a city in the San Jacinto Valley in Riverside County, California, United States. It covers a total area of , about half of the valley, which it shares with the neighboring city of San Jacinto. The population was 89,833 at the 2020 ...

in the 1990s. His attorneys accused the diocese of having been a so-called dumping ground for sexually abusive priests. The diocese had permanently removes Perreault from ministry in September 2011 after receiving abuse allegations against him.

Bishops

Bishops of San Bernardino

# Phillip Francis Straling (1978–1995), appointed Bishop of Reno # Gerald Richard Barnes (1995–2020) #

(2020–present)

Coadjutor bishops

(2019–2020)

Auxiliary bishops

* Gerald Richard Barnes (1992–1995) * Dennis Patrick O'Neil (2001–2003) *

Rutilio del Riego Jáñez Rutilio del Riego Jáñez (born September 21, 1940) is a Spanish people, Spanish-born American prelate of the Catholic Church, Roman Catholic Church. Del Riego Jáñez served as an auxiliary bishop for the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardi ...

(2005–2015)

High schools

* Aquinas High School – San Bernardino * Notre Dame High School – Riverside *

Xavier College Preparatory High School Xavier or Xabier may refer to: Place * Xavier, Spain People * Xavier (surname) * Xavier (given name) * Francis Xavier (1506–1552), Catholic saint ** St. Francis Xavier (disambiguation) * St. Xavier (disambiguation) * Xavier (footballer, bor ...

– Palm Desert Our Lady of the Desert School in Yucca Valley is not associated with the diocese, though it offers traditional Catholic education.

References

External links

Diocese of San Bernardino Pastoral Center

{{coord, 34.1294, N, 117.2930, W, source:wikidata-and-enwiki-cat-tree_region:US, display=title Organizations based in San Bernardino County, California

Culture of San Bernardino, California Religion in Riverside County, California Christian organizations established in 1978