1700 to 1808

Before the American Revolution, the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, which included southern Massachusetts and Cape Cod, had enacted laws prohibiting the practice of Catholicism in the colony. It was even illegal for a priest to reside there. To gain the support of Massachusetts Catholics to fight against the British, revolutionary leaders were forced to enact religious freedom for Catholics in 1780.^[4]

After the Revolution ended in 1783, Pope Pius VI erected in 1784 the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, encompassing the entire territory of the new nation. Pius VI created the Diocese of Baltimore, the first diocese in the United States, to replace the prefecture apostolic in 1789.^[5]

1808 to 1900

Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Boston on April 8, 1808, including all of New England in its jurisdiction.^[6] Bishop Jean-Louis de Cheverus of Boston established St Lawrence's Church, the first Catholic church in New Bedford and in 1821 with the assistance of Portuguese sailors and Irish laborers.^[7] The first Catholic church on Cape Cod was St. Peter's, constructed in Sandwich in 1830. Fall River received it first Catholic church in 1837 when St. John the Baptist was completed.^[7] In 1869, the first Portuguese language parish in the country was started in Fall River.

The Diocese of Providence was erected by Pope Pius IX on February 17, 1872. The pope removed the counties of Bristol, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket in Massachusetts from the Archdiocese of Boston. The present day Diocese of Fall River area would remain part of the Diocese of Providence for the next 32 years.

1900 to 1950

Pope Pius X erected the Diocese of Fall River on March 12, 1904. He took all of the Massachusetts counties from Diocese of Providence for the new diocese, making it a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Boston. He appointed William Stang of Providence as the first bishop of Fall River. At the time of his appointment, the new diocese had 44 parishes serving 130,000 Catholics.^[7]

On May 8, 1904, St. Mary's Cathedral was packed with worshipers for Stang's first mass, with police detachments controlling the crowd, estimated at 25,000 people, on the street outside the building.^[8][9] During his tenue, Stang established eleven parishes and founded Saint Anne's Hospital in Fall River. One of the new parishes was St. Boniface, a German parish in New Bedford.^[10]

After Stang's death in 1907, Pius X appointed Daniel Feehan from the Diocese of Springfield as the second bishop of Fall River that same year. During his 27-year tenure, Feehan became known as the "Benevolent Bishop", establishing 36 parishes. To assist Feehan, Pope Pius IX named Auxiliary Bishop James Cassidy as coadjutor bishop of the diocese in 1934. Feehan died in office later that year and Cassidy automatically succeeded him as bishop. Bishop Feehan High School in Attleboro was named in his honor.

1950 to 1970

As bishop, Cassidy founded several homes for senior citizens.^[11] In 1945, Pope Pius XII appointed James Connolly from the Diocese of Providence to serve as coadjutor bishop to assist Cassidy. In 1948, the Congregation of the Holy Cross founded Stonehill College in Easton. In early 1951, Cassidy published a pastoral letter forbidding girls cheerleading at Catholic high schools in the diocese, citing what he termed the indecency of their outfits. He also banned football games at night.^[12]

Following Cassidy's death in 1951, Connolly automatically became the new bishop. Bishop Cassidy High School in Taunton, now known as Coyle and Cassidy High School, was named in Cassidy's honor. As bishop, one of Connolly's special concerns was with providing secondary education in the four urban areas of the diocese. He constructed four Catholic high schools during his tenure. Bishop Connolly High School^[13] was dedicated to him in 1967. He also founded the diocesan newspaper, The Anchor.^[14]

1970 to 2002

After Connolly retired in 1970, Pope Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Cronin of the Archdiocese of Boston as the fifth bishop of Fall River. Cronin continued the work of implementing the decrees of the Second Vatican Council and supported liturgical renewal, continuing education of the clergy and the restoration of the permanent diaconate. He expanded Catholic Counseling and Social Services as well as the Family Life Ministry.^[15] Late in 1991, Pope John Paul II appointed Cronin as archbishop of the Archdiocese of Hartford.

To replace Cronin, John Paul II appointed Bishop Seán O'Malley of the Diocese of St. Thomas in 1992 as the new bishop of Fall River. His main challenge was to settle the sexual abuse scandal in the Diocese of Fall River. He established an office for AIDS Ministry and two new residences for women, fostered vocations to the priesthood and reorganized the diocesan curia or administration. O’Malley created the Office of Pastoral Planning to assist him on merging parishes and assigning priests.^[7]

2002 to present

In 2002, John Paul II named O'Malley as bishop of the Diocese of Palm Beach and appointed George Coleman as his successor. In 2007, Coleman opened Pope John Paul II High School in Hyannis, the first Catholic high school on Cape Cod. He also created a directorship of Faith Formation, a youth ministry and a Marriage and Family Ministry.^[7] Coleman retired in 2014.

On July 3, 2014, Pope Francis appointed Auxiliary Bishop Edgar Moreira da Cunha from the Archdiocese of Newark as the eighth bishop of the Diocese of Fall River.^[16][17][18] Da Cunha is the current bishop of Fall River.

Sexual abuse

In the early 1990s, revelations surfaced about how the Diocese of Fall River protected James Porter from charges of sexual abuse between 1960 and 1964. In 1960, Porter was assigned to St. Mary's grammar school, where he was charged with managing the school's altar boys. Parents soon started filing complaints against Porter with the diocese. However, the diocese took no action against him until 1963; by that time, at least four parents had complained about Porter's inappropriate behavior with their children. The diocese then moved Porter to a parish in Fall River without notifying police or the new parish about the allegations. More complaints were made against Porter.^[19] In 1964, Porter was arrested on sex abuse charges.^[20] However, he was only sent out for inpatient hospital treatment. He left the priesthood in 1974 and started a family. In 1987, he served four months in jail in Minnesota for molesting his children's sitter.^[21]

Porter was arrested in Massachusetts in 1993. He was accused of abusing over 60 children in North Attleboro and nearly 100 children elsewhere in the diocese.^[22] Porter pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 to 20 years in prison, with the possibility of parole after six years. In December 1993, Bishop O'Malley acknowledged the diocese's protection of Porter and apologized.^[23] Denied parole throughout his sentence, Porter completed his prison sentence in 2004. However, he was not released pending a civil commitment hearing. Porter died in prison in 2005.^[19]

A lawsuit was filed in 2014 against Archbishop Cronin of Hartford by two men who claimed they were sexually abused as young boys by Maurice Souza, a priest in East Falmouth. The plaintiffs claimed that Cronin, then bishop of Fall River, failed to properly supervise Souza, who allegedly molested the boys during the 1980's in East Falmouth and on athletic trips out of town.^[24] In January 2019, Cronin and the two men reached a settlement, with each man to receive $200,000.^[25]

In December 2020, a grand jury at Barnstable Superior Court indicted Mark R. Hession, also known as "Father Mark", on two counts of rape, one count of indecent assault and battery on a child under age 14, and one count of intimidation of a witness.^[26] Hession was known to many locals because of his past work at Our Lady of Victory Parish in Centerville. Hession also worked closely with the Kennedy family and even delivered the homily at Senator Ted Kennedy's funeral in 2009.^[26]

The diocese in May 2023 settled a lawsuit brought by Jason Medeiros. Three years early, Medeiros had alleged that Richard DeGagne had sexually assaulted him when he was 12 and 13 in the 1980's at St Anthony of Padua Parish in New Bedford. The diocese suspended DeGagne in 2019^[27]

Bishops of Fall River

1. William Stang (1904–1907)
2. Daniel Francis Feehan (1907–1934)
3. James Edwin Cassidy (1934–1951; coadjutor bishop 1934)
4. James Louis Connolly (1951–1970; coadjutor bishop 1945–1951)
5. Daniel Anthony Cronin (1970–1992), appointed Archbishop of Hartford
6. Seán Patrick O'Malley (1992–2002), appointed Bishop of Palm Beach and later Archbishop of Boston (created Cardinal in 2006)
7. George William Coleman (2003–2014)
8. Edgar Moreira da Cunha (2014–present)

Auxiliary Bishops of Fall River

• James Edwin Cassidy (1930-1934), appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Fall River (see above)
• James Joseph Gerrard (1959-1976)

Other diocesan priests who became bishops

• John Edward Morris (priest here, 1914–1921), appointed Prefect of Peng-Yang in 1930
• William Otterwell Brady, appointed Bishop of Sioux Falls in 1939
• Humberto Sousa Medeiros, appointed Bishop of Brownsville in 1966 and Archbishop of Boston in 1970; future Cardinal
• Joseph Patrick Delaney (priest here, 1960–1971), appointed Bishop of Fort Worth in 1981

Schools

• Bishop Feehan High School – Attleboro
• Bishop Stang High School – Dartmouth
• Saint John Paul II High School – Hyannis

Colleges

Stonehill College – Easton

Superintendents

The current Superintendent of Schools is Stephen Perla.^[28] The following is a list of superintendents:

• George A. Milot, PhD (2001–2011)^[29]
• Michael S. Griffin (2011–2016)
• Stephen Perla (2016 – present)