Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge

The present-day Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge began with the work of French missionaries among the Native American peoples of the area.[2] The Jesuit priest Pierre Charlevoix celebrated the first mass in the Baton Rouge area in 1722. The first Catholic churches in the region were:

• St. Francis Chapel in Pointe Coupée in 1738[3]
• St. James in 1767
• St. Gabriel in 1769. The oldest church in the diocese that still stands in its original form is St. Gabriel Church
• Donaldsonville in 1772
• Baton Rouge in 1792
• Plattenville in 1793

In 1793, Pope Leo XIII erected the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas. It was renamed as the Roman Catholic Diocese of New Orleans in 1826 and elevated to a metropolitan archdiocese in 1850.[4] The Baton Rouge area would remain part of the archdiocese for the next 110 years

On July 22, 1961, Pope John XXIII erected the Roman Catholic Diocese of Baton Rouge,[5] taking its territory from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans. He named Auxiliary Bishop Robert E. Tracy of the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana as the first bishop of Baton Rouge. Tracy designated St. Joseph Church as the cathedral church of the new diocese. When he took office, the new diocese had a Roman Catholic population 164,476 out of a total population of 464,904, as reported in the 1960 U.S. census.

Tracy established a consultative process as an integral part of the diocesan administration, and encouraged greater participation by the laity in governing the diocese. He also oversaw the construction of the Catholic Life Center and the renovation of St. Joseph Cathedral. In 1967, Tracy became the first American bishop to publish a financial statement for his diocese. In 1972, he established a committee for the regulation of allowing remarried Catholics to receive the sacraments, saying, "The Church has a pastoral responsibility of healing and forgiveness".[6][7]

After Tracy retired in 1974, Pope Paul VI named Joseph V. Sullivan of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Kansas City-Saint Joseph as the second bishop of Baton Rouge. In February 1979, he refused to allow theologian Charles Curran, whom Sullivan denounced as "heretical" and "not in accord with Catholic teaching", to speak at the Catholic Campus Ministry at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.[8] After he removed the Claretian Fathers from the chaplaincy at Louisiana State University in March 1979, 51 priests filed a list of grievances with the Holy See.[9]

In February 1981, Sullivan issued a pastoral letter in which he declared that ministries to divorced and remarried Catholics "may not witness, explicitly or implicitly, that the living Church condones the marital lifestyle of those living in an invalid marriage."[9] He also promoted Catholic education, establishing elementary schools and planning for a new high school.[10] Sullivan died in 1982.

In 1983, Pope John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop Stanley Joseph Ott of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New Orleans as the third bishop of Baton Rouge.[7] During his nine-year tenure, he encouraged the increased participation of the laity in diocesan affairs, and promoted the ecumenical movement by engaging with leaders of other religions.[11] He also oversaw a major reorganization of the Presbyteral Council and other diocesan structures.[11]

After Ott died in 1992, John Paul II named Auxiliary Bishop Alfred C. Hughes of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston in 1993 as the next bishop of Baton Rouge. The pope in 2001 appointed Hughes as coadjutor archbishop of New Orleans and named Auxiliary Bishop Robert Muench of New Orleans as Hughes' successor in Baton Rouge.[12] Muench retired in 2018.

The current bishop of Baton Rouge is Michael Duca, formerly bishop of the Diocese of Shreveport. He was named bishop by Pope Francis in 2018.[13]

The diocese was sued in January 2003 by Patrick Myers, who claimed that he was sexually abused by Reverend Christopher Springer from 1978 to 1982 when Myers was an altar server. The diocese removed Springer from ministry in 1985 and the Vatican laicized him in 1990.[14]By July 2004, five more male former altar servers had sued the diocese regarding abuse by Springer, claiming that diocese attempted to hide Springer's alleged crimes.[15] The diocese settled the lawsuits with the plaintiffs in December 2005.[16]

In November 2004, the diocese settled a sexual abuse lawsuit brought by a Baton Rouge man. The plaintiff claimed that Bishop Sullivan had abused him when he was 17 years old in 1975. Bishop Muench authorized a settlement with the plaintiff, calling the accusations credible. He promised to rename the Bishop Sullivan High School in Baton Rouge before the next school term. In October 2009, the diocese paid $225,000 to settle a lawsuit in which a Houston, Texas, man claimed he was sexually abused by Sullivan as a seminarian between 1978 and 1982.[17]

In 2009, Rebecca Mayeux and her parents sued the diocese and one of its priests, Jeff Bayhi. In 2008, the 14-year-old Mayeux had gone to confession with Bayhi and told him that she has been sexually abused by George Charlet Jr., a parish member. In the court filing, Mayeux's lawyers said that Bayhi had failed his legal responsibility to report the abuse to law enforcement. The diocese said that it was legally protected from revealing the contents of a confession in court.[18] The Louisiana Supreme Court had previously ruled that the Catholic Seal of Confession was legally protected[18] In 2016, a judge ruled that Bayli was not legally obligated to report anything said during confession.[19]

In January 2019, the diocese released the names of 37 former clergy who had been accused of committing acts of sexual abuse while serving the diocese.[20] The diocese added four more names to the list in February 2019,[20] two more names in July 2019,[21] two more names in January 2020, and another name in July 2020,[22] bringing the current total to 46.

1. Robert Emmet Tracy (1961-1974)
2. Joseph Vincent Sullivan (1974-1982)
3. Stanley Joseph Ott (1983-1992)
4. Alfred Clifton Hughes (1993-2001), appointed Archbishop of New Orleans
5. Robert William Muench (2002-2018)
6. Michael Gerard Duca (2018–present)

• William Donald Borders, appointed Bishop of Orlando in 1968 and later Archbishop of Baltimore
• Shelton Fabre, appointed Auxiliary Bishop of New Orleans in 2006 and later Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux. He has been the Archbishop of Louisville since 2022.

• Ascension Catholic Diocesan High School – Donaldsonville
• Catholic High School – Baton Rouge
• Catholic High School of Pointe Coupee – New Roads
• Saint Thomas Aquinas Diocesan Regional High School – Tangipahoa Parish
• St. John the Evangelist Interparochial High School – Plaquemine
• St. Joseph's Academy – Baton Rouge
• St. Michael the Archangel Diocesan Regional High School – Shenandoah, East Baton Rouge Parish