1600 to 1982 The first Catholic mission in Texas, then part of the
Spanish Empire, was
San Francisco de los Tejas. It was founded by the Franciscan
Damián Massanet in 1690 in the
Weches area. The priests left the mission after three years, then established a second one,
Nuestro Padre San Francisco de los Tejas, near present-day
Alto in 1716. In 1824, a Mexican missionary founded the City of Victoria on the
Guadalupe River and established Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. In 1839, after the 1836 founding of the
Texas Republic,
Pope Gregory XVI erected the
Prefecture Apostolic of Texas, covering its present-day area. The prefecture was elevated to a
vicariate apostolic in 1841, the year Texas became an American state. The area was assigned to several different Texas dioceses for the next 135 years.
1982 to present Pope John Paul II established the Diocese of Victoria in Texas on April 13, 1982. Its territory was taken from the
Archdiocese of San Antonio, the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, and the
Diocese of Corpus Christi. The pope named Auxiliary Bishop
Charles Grahmann of the Archdiocese of San Antonio as the first bishop. In 1989,
Pope John Paul II named Grahmann as coadjutor bishop of the
Diocese of Dallas-Fort Worth. Replacing Grahmann in Victoria in 1990 was
David Fellhauer from the same diocese. In 2004, the diocese was transferred from the province of San Antonio to the newly established Province of Galveston-Houston. Fellhauer retired in 2015. The current bishop of the Diocese of Victoria in Texas is Brendan J. Cahill, named bishop by Pope Francis in 2015.
Sex abuse On January 21, 2019, Bishop Cahill named three diocesan priests with credible accusations of
sexual abuse of minors. The investigation covered all allegations dating back to the founding of the diocese in 1982. One priest, David L. Collela, was retired and a second, Guido Miguel Quiroz Reyes, was deceased. The third priest, Alfred Prado, had been
laicized and left the United States. == Coat of arms ==