Roman Catholic Diocese of Memphis


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Memphis is a Roman Catholic diocese in Tennessee. It was founded on June 20, 1970, when Pope Paul VI removed the counties in the state west of the Tennessee River from the Diocese of Nashville, which, prior to that time, encompassed the entire state.
The diocese is broken into two deaneries, the Memphis Deanery comprising Shelby County and the Jackson Deanery which encompassed the other 20 counties in the diocese. Currently, there are 28 parishes in the Memphis Deanery, 14 parishes and 5 missions in the Jackson Deanery.

Bishops

Bishops of Memphis

The following is a list of Ordinaries of Memphis, along with their dates of service:
In 2007, Diocese of Memphis settled three sex abuse lawsuits. In 2010, unsealed court documents revealed that at least 15 Catholic clergy who served in the Diocese of Memphis were accused of committing acts of sex abuse and that $2 million was secretly paid to one of these sex abuse victims. On February 19, 2020, it was revealed former Memphis Bishop Carroll Dozier was accused committing acts of sex abuse in Roman Catholic Diocese of Richmond before he was transferred to the Diocese of Memphis. In September 2019, the Richmond sex abuse accusations resulted in Dozier's image being removed the city of Memphis' "Upstanders Mural", located on a wall across from the National Civil Rights Museum. On February 28, 2020, The Diocese of Memphis released a list of 20 Catholic clergy who were credibly accused of sexually abusing children while serving in the Diocese.

Education

There is one Catholic University within the geographic boundaries of the Diocese:
There are a total of 28 primary and secondary schools with a total of more than 8000 students. The High Schools include: