Roman Catholic Diocese of Lubbock

The Diocese of Lubbock () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in West Texas in the United States.  It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of San Antonio.

The Diocese of Lubbock was founded on June 27, 1983.  Its mother church is Christ the King Cathedral in Lubbock. As of 2023, the current bishop of Lubbock is Robert Coerver

Description 
The Diocese of Lubbock encompasses 25 counties:

Bailey, Borden, Cochran, Cottle, Crosby, Dawson, Dickins, Fisher, Floyd, Gaines, Garza, Hale, Haskell, Hockley, Jones, Kent, King, Lamb, Lubbock, Lynn, Motley, Scurry, Stonewall, Terry, and Yoakum.

As of 2023, the diocese contained a Catholic population over 136,000 served in 61 parishes.

History

Name changes 
The Lubbock area was divided among several different Catholic jurisdictions over the years:

 Prefecture Apostolic of Texas (1841 to 1847)
 Vicariate Apostolic of Texas (1847 to 1874)
 Diocese of Galveston (1874 to 1914)
 Dioceses of Dallas and San Antonio (1914 to 1926)
 Diocese of Amarillo (1926 to 1983)
 Diocese of San Angelo (1961 to 1983)
 Diocese of Lubbock (1983 to present)

1900 to present 
The first parish in Lubbock, St. Joseph's, was established in 1924.  The Diocese of Amarillo built St. Elizabeth's in Lubbock in 1936, the second Catholic church in the city. The Sisters of Orange, California, opened St. Mary of the Plains Hospital in Lubbock in 1939.

Pope John Paul II erected the Diocese of Lubbock on June 25, 1983, taking its territory from the Dioceses of Amarillo and San Angelo. The pope named Reverend Michael Sheehan of the Diocese of Dallas-Fort Worth as the first bishop of the new diocese. In 1993, Sheehan was named archbishop of the Archdiocese of Santa Fe.

Auxiliary Bishop Plácido Rodriguez of the Archdiocese of Chicago was appointed as the second bishop of Lubbock by John Paul II in 1994. Rodriguez retired in 2015.

As of 2023, the current bishop of Lubbock is Robert Coerver from the Diocese of Dallas. He was appointed by Pope Francis in 2016.

In March 2021, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued an arrest warrant for a parishioner from the diocese who was accused of embezzling $250,000 from Christ the King Cathedral.  The suspect, Nathan Webb, had been in charge of bill paying and managing donations for the cathedral parish. Webb fled to Colombia after the warrant was issued. After being extradited back to Texas, Webb pleaded guilty and was sentenced in April 2023 to four years in state prison.

Sex abuse 
In January 2004, Bishop Rodriguez released a list of five priests and one deacon with credible allegations of sexual abuse of minors.  Most of the cases predated the formation of the diocese.  The men on the list were either deceased or already removed from ministry.

In January, 2019, Bishop Coerver released a revised list of clerics with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors. One man named on the revised list was Jesus Guerrero.  Guerrero had been accused in 1997 and 2007 of having an inappropriate relationship with an adult female parishioner alleged to have mental problems.

Guerrero sued the diocese in March 2019 for defamation, saying that since he had never been accused of sexual abuse with a minor, the diocese shouldn't have added him to the list of accused priests. The diocese countered that the woman's mental disabilities rendered her a child in its eyes. When the lower court refused to dismiss the case, the diocese appealed the decision to the Texas Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court dismissed Guerrero's lawsuit in June 2021, citing the First Amendment rights under the US Constitution of churches to manage their own affairs.

Bishops
 Michael Jarboe Sheehan (1983–1993), appointed Archbishop of Santa Fe
 Plácido Rodriguez, C.M.F. (1994–2016)
 Robert Milner Coerver (since 2016)

Education
The Diocese of Lubbock has one school, Christ the King Cathedral School in Lubbock.  It is Pre-K through high school.

Arms

See also

 Catholic Church by country
 Catholic Church in the United States
 Ecclesiastical Province of San Antonio
 Global organisation of the Catholic Church
 List of Roman Catholic archdioceses (by country and continent)
 List of Roman Catholic dioceses (alphabetical) (including archdioceses)
 List of Roman Catholic dioceses (structured view) (including archdioceses)
 List of the Catholic dioceses of the United States

References

External links
Roman Catholic Diocese of Lubbock Official Site

Roman Catholic Ecclesiastical Province of San Antonio
Christian organizations established in 1983
Lubbock
Lubbock
Organizations based in Lubbock, Texas