Roman Catholic Diocese of Pueblo

The Diocese of Pueblo (Dioecesis Pueblensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in southern Colorado in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Denver.

The Diocese of Pueblo was created on November 15, 1941. The Cathedral of the Sacred Heart in Pueblo is the seat of the diocese.

1800 to 1940
Until the Mexican-American War (1846 to 1849), the Pueblo area was controlled by Mexico, with all Catholic missions under the jurisdiction of the Archdiocese of Durango. After the war, the United States assumed control of the region. In 1851, Pope Pius IX created the Apostolic Vicariate of New Mexico, including Colorado. The Vatican converted the vicariate into the Diocese of Santa Fe in 1853.

The first church in the Pueblo area was the Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, constructed in 1858 in Conejos by colonists from New Mexico. In 1868, Pope Pius IX removed territory from the Diocese of Santa Fe and the Diocese of Grass Valley to form the Vicariate Apostolic of Colorado and Utah. In 1870, the pope erected the Vicariate Apostolic of Colorado, covering only the state of Colorado. On August 16, 1887, Pope Leo XIII converted the vicariate into the Diocese of Denver.

1940 to present
On November 15, 1941, Pope Pius XII separated territory from the Archdiocese of Denver to form the Diocese of Pueblo. He appointed Joseph Willging from the Diocese of Helena as the first bishop of Pueblo. During his 17-year-long tenure, Willging increased the number of parishes from 39 to 60, and the number of priests from 84 to 151. He also encouraged the establishment of parochial schools and Catholic hospitals. The last official Roman Catholic "cruzado" or Crusade tax, referring to the tax taken to fund the Crusades, was not abolished by the Diocese of Pueblo, Colorado until 1945. died in 1959 after 17 years as bishop.

Pope John XXIII appointed Charles Buswell of the Diocese of Oklahoma City-Tulsa as the second bishop of Pueblo. Buswell resigned in 1979. He was replaced by Arthur Tafoya of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe in 1980 by Pope John Paul II. In 1983, John Paul II removed several counties from the Diocese of Pueblo to form the Diocese of Colorado Springs. After 29 years as bishop, Tafoya retired in 2009. In 2009, the diocese had nearly 100,000 registered Catholics, about 16% of the population. That same year, Fernando Isern of the Archdiocese of Miami was appointed the fourth bishop of Pueblo by Pope Benedict XVI.

After Isern retired in 2013, Pope Francis named Stephen Berg of the Diocese of Fort Worth to replace him. As of 2023, Berg is the current bishop of the Diocese of Pueblo.

Reports of sex abuse
Lucas Antonio Galvan pleaded guilty in 1989 to sexually fondling an 11-year-old girl; he was sentenced to a one to two year suspended sentence. After finishing his sentence, Galvan moved to Mexico, where he was allowed to serve in several parishes. The diocese paid the victim a $90,000 settlement.

In 1990, William Groves, of St. Ignatius Catholic Church in Ignacio, pleaded guilty to felony sexual of a child. He had assaulted a 14 year old boy in September 1989. Groves received four years probation and sex abuse treatment

In October 2006, the diocese paid a $4 million settlement to 23 male victims of Brother William Mueller, a Marianist band director at Roncalli High School in Pueblo between 1966 and 1971. Mueller would lure individual boys to the band room on the pretext of conducting an experiment. Once there, he would drug the victim with ether and sexually abuse him. Mueller left the Marianist Order in 1986 after more allegations arose in San Antonio, Texas.

John Yengich sued the diocese for $1 million in 2009, claiming that he had been sexually abused by Daniel Maio from 1968 to 1969. Yengich said that Maio, youth director for the diocese, would invite young boys to his residence, where he would ply them with alcohol and play strip poker with them. A second man accused Maio of sexual abuse in April 2010. The diocese settled the Yengich lawsuit in March 2011.

In October 2019, an investigation by Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser revealed that 43 Catholic clergy were credibly accused of sexually abusing at least 166 children throughout Colorado since 1950. At least 36 of these children were molested by 19 clergy serving in the Diocese of Pueblo.

In October 2020, it was revealed that all three of Colorado's Catholic Dioceses, including the Diocese of Pueblo, had paid a total of $6.6 million in compensation to 81 victims of clergy sex abuse within the past year. In December 2020, Weiser's final report revealed that there were an additional nine credibly accused clergy and 46 alleged victims in both the Diocese of Pueblo and Archdiocese of Denver. Four of these priests (Marvin Kapushion, Duane Repola, Carlos Trujillo, and Joseph Walsh) were accused of committing acts of sex abuse while serving in the Diocese of Pueblo.

Bishops of Pueblo

 * Joseph Clement Willging (1941-1959)
 * Charles Albert Buswell (1959-1979)
 * Arthur Nicholas Tafoya (1980-2009)
 * Fernando Isern (2009-2013)
 * Stephen Jay Berg (2014–present)

Other diocesan priest who became a bishop
David Laurin Ricken, appointed Coadjutor Bishop and Bishop of Cheyenne and later Bishop of Green Bay

Education

 * Holy Family Catholic School – Grand Junction
 * St. Columba Catholic School – Durango
 * St. Therese Catholic School – Pueblo

Pueblo Catholic High School closed in 1971.