1630 to 1800 The first Catholic presence in present-day Wisconsin was that of French Catholic missionaries in the Green Bay area in the 17th century. When French explorer
Jean Nicolet entered the Green Bay in 1634, he was followed by Jesuit missionaries. Wisconsin became part of the French colony of
New France, with Catholics under the jurisdiction of the
Diocese of Quebec. The first catholic missionary in the Superior region was
René Menard, a French
Jesuit missionary who was fluent in the
Ojibwe,
Odawa, and
Huron dialects. In Spring 1661, he explored to
Chequamegon Bay on Lake Superior. The first new Catholic church in the Wisconsin area in over 100 years was constructed in
Fort Howard in 1825. Its parishioners included many
French Canadians living in the settlement. Later in 1837, the Diocese of Detroit sent Patrick Kelly to Milwaukee to serve as its first resident priest. Kelly celebrated mass in the Milwaukee courthouse until 1839, when he opened St. Peter's, the first Catholic church in the city. During the mid-19th century,
Samuel Mazzuchelli established 11 parishes in the Madison area. In 1846, Catholic residents of
Beloit, Wisconsin, founded
St. Thomas the Apostle Parish, the first parish in that city. Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848. That same year, the first Catholic church in Madison, St. Raphael, was founded.
Pope Pius IX established the
Diocese of Lacrosse and the
Diocese of Green Bay in 1868. Saint Paul's Catholic Student Center, serving the
University of Wisconsin Madison community, was founded in 1906.
1946 to 2003 The Diocese of Madison was established on January 9, 1946, by
Pope Pius XII. The diocese was created out of territory from the
Archdiocese of Milwaukee and the Dioceses of La Crosse and Green Bay. The pope selected Bishop
William O'Connor from the
Diocese of Superior as the first bishop of Madison. During O'Connor's tenure, the diocese grew from 135 priests serving 82,000 Catholics to 290 priests serving 180,640 Catholics. In his first year as bishop, O'Connor established the Blessed Martin Guild to promote racial understanding and convert more minorities to Catholicism. He also founded
Holy Name Seminary in Madison in 1965. O'Connor resigned in 1967. In 1967,
Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop
Cletus F. O'Donnell from the
Archdiocese of Chicago as the second bishop of Madison. He established ministries for the
deaf and the
developmentally disabled. He also encouraged adult education and created a religious education consultants program to help individual parishes. After O'Donnell retired in 1992,
Pope John Paul II named Bishop
William Bullock of the
Diocese of Des Moines to replace him. The pope declared Mazzuchelli, a pioneer priest in the region from the 19th century, as
venerable in 1993. In 1995, Bullock closed Holy Name Seminary. He retired in 2003.
2003 to present Bishop
Robert C. Morlino from the
Diocese of Helena was named the fourth bishop of the Diocese of Madison in 2003. Morlino celebrated the
Tridentine Mass in several parishes. He ordered all the parishes to move the
tabernacles in their churches to central places of prominence. Morlino encouraged parishioners to receive
communion on the tongue while kneeling, and he encouraged pastors to enlist exclusively male
altar servers. Morlino helped raise $44 million for the endowment fund "Priests for Our Future". The number of
seminarians grew from six to thirty during his episcopate, one of the largest increases in the United States. Catholics in his diocese had divided opinions of him. In May 2009, Morlino announced that due to budget cuts, he was closing the Catholic Multicultural Center, which provided food and other support for residents on Madison's south side. A handoff to local parish administration and fundraising drive was announced one week later. In March 2009, Morlino dismissed Ruth Kolpack from her post as a pastoral associate at St. Thomas the Apostle in
Beloit, citing her alleged breaches of orthodoxy. In a brief meeting with Kolpack, he asked her to take an oath of loyalty to the church. Morlino also demanded that she renounce her 2003 doctoral thesis, which advocated
women's ordination in the Catholic Church and the use of
inclusive language relating to God. Morlino fired Kolpack after she refused this last demand. Morlino died in 2018. The current bishop of the Diocese of Madison is
Donald J. Hying. He was appointed in 2018. In 2023, Hying announced the grouping of all the parishes into 30 pastorates to be run by multiple priests.
Cathedral fire In March 2005, St. Raphael's Cathedral was heavily damaged in an
arson attack. William J. Connell was arrested and charged with arson and other crimes, but was deemed incompetent to stand trial due to
paranoid schizophrenia. After later being deemed competent, he was tried and convicted. In June 2007, Connell was sentenced to 15 years in prison followed by 15 years of close supervision. In April 2007, Bishop Morlino released plans to erect a new cathedral on the existing site. However, the plans were never realized. In March 2023, Bishop Hying announced that he had petitioned the Vatican to designate
St. Bernard Catholic Church in Madison as the new cathedral, and
Pope Francis elevated the church the same year.
Reports of sex abuse In September 2003, at a legislative hearing in Madison, a woman from
Sun Prairie accused Gerald Vosen, pastor of St. Joseph's Catholic Church in
Baraboo, of sexually assaulting her brother when he was age 14 in the 1970s. Vosen, who denied the accusations, was put on leave by the diocese. The diocesan review board reviewed three allegations against Vosen and in February 2003 recommended the permanent suspension of his ministry. In May 2004, Vosen unsuccessfully sued one of his accusers. In June 2019, the diocese agreed to publish a list of credibly accused clergy. In March 2020, Bishop Hying announced that they had found two credible
sexual abuse allegations against Patrick Doherty, a retired priest. Hying had previously placed restrictions on Doherty. In August 2025, Madison-based priest Father Andrew T. Showers was given three felony charges of attempted use of a computer to facilitate a child sex crime, attempted child enticement-exposing intimate parts, and attempted second-degree sexual assault of a child after being arrested in
Clintonville, Wisconsin while trying to meet with someone he presumed was a 14 year-old, but who turned out to be an undercover police officer. In March 2026, Showers would be given two child pornography possession charges as well. On May 4, 2026, Showers pled not guilty to the child pornography possession charges. ==Bishops==