[2] The diocese consists of 38 counties in mainly rural northeastern and central Missouri, and includes the urban areas of Columbia and Jefferson City.

The first Catholic presence in present-day Missouri was that of the Jesuit missionary Reverend Jacques Marquette in 1673, who stopped in Perry County while voyaging down the Mississippi River.

During this period, the Catholics in the region were under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of San Cristobal de la Habana, based in Havana, Cuba.

In 1793, after the American Revolution, Pope Pius VI erected the Diocese of Louisiana and the Two Floridas, based in New Orleans.

[6] In 1803, with the signing of the Louisiana Purchase, the United States took control from France of a vast area of the continent, including Missouri.

Pope Pius VII in 1815 named Reverend Louis Dubourg from the Diocese of Baltimore as the first bishop of Louisiana and the Two Floridas.

[20] In 1982, Holy Family Parish in New Haven, Missouri, won a court battle with McAuliffe over the relocation of an ornate marble altar within the church sanctuary.

[23] In November 2024, the diocese garnered controversy when Bishop McKnight issuing and swiftly rescinding a diocesan decree that banned several popular hymns, including “All Are Welcome” by Marty Haugen, from parishes in its boundaries.

The plaintiff claimed that Bishop Anthony J. O'Connell of the Diocese of Palm Beach, then rector at the seminary, had sexually exploited him.

[29] In May 2002, facing declining enrollment at Thomas Aquinas Seminary and pending more sexual abuse lawsuits, Gaydos closed it.

[30] In 2003, Bishop McAuliffe and the diocese were sued by a North Carolina man who claimed to have been sexually molested by two diocesan priests when he was a child.

[35] In January 2022, the diocese released a list of clergy accused of violating the Charter for The Protection of Children and Young People issued by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops.

[37] At that time, McKnight made this statement:“I want to be clear that sexual solicitation during confession is a sacrilege, a crime in our Church, and a grave form of abuse; it cannot be tolerated.”[38]In July 2024, Medina pleaded guilty in court to stealing over $300,000 from St. Stanislaus Parish in Wardsville from 2013 to 2021.

[39] The Alphonse J. Schwartze Memorial Catholic Center serves as the chancery offices for the Diocese of Jefferson City.

It is dominated by an imported 4½ foot wooden image of Christ modeled after the Gero Crucifix of the Cathedral of St. Peter and the Virgin Mary in Cologne, Germany.