Roman Catholic Diocese of San Bernardino

During the 18th century, the San Bernardino and Riverside areas were part of the province of Las Californias in the Spanish colony of New Spain. In 1804, the Spanish Government split Las Californias into two provinces, with most of present day California becoming part of the new province of Alta California.

Spanish missionaries from the Mission San Gabriel Arcángel in present day Los Angeles established the first church in the San Bernardino area in 1810 at the village of Wa'aachnga, present day Politania.[3] Reverend Francisco Dumetz named the church San Bernardino after the feast day of St. Bernardino of Siena. The Franciscans also named the San Bernardino Mountains.[4] The first European settlement in present day Riverside County was an estancia, or farmer, established by the Mission San Luis Rey de Francia at the Luiseño village of Temescal. In 1819, Franciscan missionaries established the San Bernardino de Sena Estancia in what is today Redlands.

Alta California became a Mexican state after Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. In 1840, Pope Gregory XVI erected the Diocese of California (or Two Californias) to recognize the growth of the provinces of Alta California and Baja California. This diocese – with its episcopal see located in Monterey – included all Mexican territory west of the Colorado River and the Gulf of California (the modern U.S. states of California and Nevada, and parts of Utah, Arizona, and Colorado, as well as the modern Mexican states of Baja California and Baja California Sur).

Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States in 1848 after the Mexican–American War. At that time, the Mexican government complained to the Vatican about the Diocese of California. They didn't want American bishop to have jurisdiction over parishes in Mexico. In 1849, Pope Pius IX split the Diocese of Californian into American and Mexican dioceses; the American diocese was named the Diocese of Monterey.

In 1859, Pius IX renamed the Diocese of Monterey as the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles to recognize the growth of Los Angeles; the see was transferred to Los Angeles in 1876. In 1922, the diocese was again divided, with the southern portion becoming the Diocese of Los Angeles-San Diego. The Diocese of San Diego was established on July 11, 1936, including San Bernardino and Riverside Counties. These two counties would remain part of the Diocese of San Diego for the next 42 years.

Pope John Paul II erected the Diocese of San Bernardino on November 6, 1978, taking San Bernardino and Riverside Counties from the Diocese of San Diego. He appointed Reverend Phillip Straling of the Diocese of San Diego as the first bishop of San Bernardino.

During Straling's episcopate, the diocese grew from about 235,000 people to 800,000, and from 85 parishes to 105.[5] For the formation for ministry, he established a diaconate program, and started the Straling Institute in 1980 for laymen. In 1995, John Paul II named Straling as bishop of the Diocese of Reno and replaced him in the Diocese of San Bernardino with Auxiliary Bishop Gerald Barnes.

Under Barnes, the diocese operated three high schools, twenty-three elementary schools and three pre-schools. In 2001, Barnes inaugurated the Annual Bishop's Golf Classic to fund scholarships to families who are unable to afford a Catholic education for their children. During his tenure, Barnes closed four primary schools in the California communities of Barstow, Banning, Apple Valley[6] and San Bernardino.[7] The high desert portion of the diocese currently has no Catholic schools. On December 2, 2019, Auxiliary Bishop Alberto Rojas of the Archdiocese of Chicago was appointed as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of San Bernardino by Pope Francis to assist Barnes.[8]

The current bishop of the Diocese of San Bernardino is Alberto Rojas. When Barnes retired in 2020, Rojas automatically succeeded him as bishop.

On April 3, 2003, the Diocese of San Bernardino filed a lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Boston. The diocese charged that the archdiocese gave them false information on Paul R. Shanley, a priest who transferred to San Bernardino from Boston in 1990. Despite Shanley having a record of sexual abuse of minors in Massachusetts, the archdiocese described him to the diocese as "a priest in good standing". In 1990, Shanley was accused of abusing a teenager at a hotel in Palm Springs, California.[9] On July 6, 2003, after speaking to the new archbishop of Boston, Sean O'Malley, Barnes decided to drop the lawsuit.[10]

In 2018, the diocese released a list of 34 priests with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors since the founding of the diocese in 1978.[11]The diocese announced in 2019 its participation with other Southern California dioceses in a voluntary compensation plan for victims of sexual abuse by clergy.[12]

1. Phillip Francis Straling (1978–1995),[13] appointed Bishop of Reno
2. Gerald Richard Barnes (1995–2020)
3. Alberto Rojas (2020[14]–present)

1. Alberto Rojas (2019–2020)[15]

• Gerald Richard Barnes (1992–1995)
• Dennis Patrick O'Neil (2001–2003)
• Rutilio del Riego Jáñez (2005[16]–2015)