Roman Catholic Diocese of Shreveport


The Roman Catholic Diocese of Shreveport is a Roman Catholic diocese covering the parishes of northern Louisiana, and a suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of New Orleans. Its bishop is part of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops and belongs to Conference Region V. Its mother church is the Cathedral of Saint John Berchmans, in Shreveport.

History

The Diocese of Shreveport was canonically erected on June 16, 1986 when Pope John Paul II split the former Diocese of Alexandria–Shreveport into the Diocese of Alexandria in Louisiana and the Diocese of Shreveport. Prior to that, the Diocese of Alexandria was the Diocese of Natchitoches, first erected in 1853.
On July 19, 2020, it was revealed that the Diocese of Shreveport was undergoing a sex abuse lawsuit involving a man who claimed the Diocese shielded a priest who sexually abused him in the 1970s.

Statistics

The territory of the diocese covers an area of. The area's total population in 2004 was 784,665, out of which 39,436 people are Catholic. The diocese is served by 42 diocesan priests in 32 parishes. In 2010, there were eight seminarians studying for the priesthood in the diocese.

Bishops

The list of ordinaries of the diocese and their years of service:
  1. William Benedict Friend
  2. Michael Duca
  3. Francis Ignatius Malone

    High schools

The diocese publishes a monthly magazine, The Catholic Connection.