Diocese of Beaumont


The Diocese of Beaumont is a diocese of the Catholic Church covering nine counties in the state of Texas in the United States. It is a suffragan see in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. St. Anthony Cathedral Basilica serves as the cathedral church.

History

1690 to 1966

The first Catholic mission in Texas, then part of the Spanish Empire, was San Francisco de los Tejas. It was founded by Franciscan Father Damián Massanet in 1690 in the Weches area. The priests left the mission after three years, then established a second mission, Nuestro Padre San Francisco de los Tejas. near present-day Alto in 1716.
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 1846, the year that Texas became an American state. On May 4, 1847, the vicariate became the Diocese of Galveston. The Beaumont area would remain part of several Texas dioceses for the next 119 years.

1966 to 1994

On September 29, 1966, Pope Paul VI established the Diocese of Beaumont and appointed Vincent Harris of the Diocese of Galveston as its first bishop. During the 1960s, Harris put pressure on segregated Knights of Columbus councils in the diocese that refused to admit African-Americans. In 1971, Harris became the coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Austin.
Bishop Warren Boudreaux of the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana replaced Harris in 1971. After the end of the Vietnam War, the diocese received national recognition for its resettlement of refugees from what was then South Vietnam. In 1974, Boudreaux began an outreach effort to people who made their living harvesting seafood and working on ships. Boudreaux became bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in 1977.
Bishop Bernard J. Ganter of the Diocese of Tulsa was the third bishop of Beaumont, and took office in 1977. As bishop, Ganter established five new parishes, including the first Vietnamese-language parish in the United States. He initiated the permanent diaconate and ordained 36 men between 1979 and 1992. Ganter died in 1993.

1994 to present

In 1994, Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Anthony Galante of the Archdiocese of San Antonio became the next bishop of Beaumont. Five years later, Galante was made coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Dallas. Auxiliary Bishop Curtis J. Guillory of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston replaced him. Guillory created the Catholic Foundation of the Diocese of Beaumont and started a capital campaign for it. He retired in 2020.
David Toups from the Diocese of St. Petersburg was made bishop in 2020.

Sex abuse

David Arceneaux of Nederland, Texas, sued the Diocese of Beaumont in 2010, claiming that he had been sexually abused by two diocesan priests, August Pucar and Roger Thibodeaux, when he was a minor. Pucar was removed from ministerial duties in 2006 and ordered to a life of penance and prayer in 2007. Thibodeaux resigned from ministry in 2002.
In 2019, the diocese issued a list of 13 clergy, living and deceased, with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.

Bishops

  1. Vincent Madeley Harris, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Austin
  2. Warren Louis Boudreaux, appointed Bishop of Houma-Thibodaux
  3. Bernard J. Ganter
  4. Joseph Anthony Galante, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Dallas and later Bishop of Camden
  5. Curtis J. Guillory, SVD
  6. David Toups