However, unlike other parts of the future American Midwest, French missionaries made no attempts to found Catholic missions in Ohio.

After the American Revolution ended in 1783, Pope Pius VI erected in 1784 the Prefecture Apostolic of the United States, encompassing the entire territory of the new nation.

[15] After Fenwick died in 1832, Pope Gregory XVI named Reverend John Purcell as the second bishop of Cincinnati.

To simplify administration of these counties, Purcell and Bishop Louis Rappe of Cleveland, decided that:...the counties of Mercer, Auglaze, Hardin, Marion, Morrow, Knox, Tuscarawas, Carroll, Jefferson, which belong to the diocese of Cincinnati shall constitute the northern boundary of the diocese of Cincinnati.

Holmes county, which is for the greater part south of the line above traced, is by mutual consent, assigned to the diocese of Cleveland.

[21] Later that year, he created controversy when he invited Cardinal Gaetano Bedini, the emissary of Pope Pius IX, to visit Cincinnati.

However, the archdiocese fund was hit with a bank run in 1877, rendering it insolvent and unable to pay back all the depositors.

[23] In 1880, Bishop William Elder of the Diocese of Natchez was appointed coadjutor archbishop in Cincinnati by Pope Leo XIII to assist Purcell.

In 1891, after 14 years of litigation, a court found that the archdiocese owed $140,000 to parishioners who had lost money during the 1877 bank run.

In 1921, Moeller condemned several forms of dancing (including the shimmy and camel walk) as well as bare female shoulders at social functions.

Bishop John T. McNicholas of the Diocese of Detroit was appointed the fourth archbishop of Cincinnati by Pope Pius XI in 1925.

[28] During the 1928 presidential election, which featured the first Catholic to win a major party nomination in the person of Al Smith, McNicholas addressed concerns that Smith would take orders from church leaders in Rome in making decisions affecting the country by declaring, "We, as American Catholics, owe no civil allegiance to the Vatican State.

[30] After McNicholas died in 1950, Pope Pius XII named Bishop Karl Alter of Toledo as the next archbishop of Cincinnati.

[32] He also instituted a priests' senate and an archdiocesan school board composed of lay members, and encouraged the formation of parish councils.

[36] He also commissioned a wooden plaque with an image of Our Lady of America, a title of Mary, for display at the New Riegel convent.

[39] In 2008, Pope Benedict XVI named Bishop Dennis Schnurr of the Diocese of Duluth as coadjutor archbishop in Cincinnati to assist Pilarczyk.

[42][43][44] In July 2021, Schnurr said that he disapproved of a town hall being held by President Joe Biden at Mount Saint Joseph University in Cincinnati, but admitted he had no power to block it.

[48] Pope Francis accepted Schnurr's resignation on February 12, 2025 and named Bishop Robert G. Casey as the archbishop of Cincinnati.

[49][50] Reverend Thomas Brunner was removed in 1985 from his post as chaplain at Mount Notre Dame High School in Cincinnati after admitting to accusations of sexual harassment from two female students.

In 1991, Reverend George Cooley from Guardian Angels Church in Mount Washington, pleaded guilty to sexually molesting four boys during the 1980s.

[51][52] In November 2003, following a sexual abuse scandal and two-year investigation by the Hamilton County prosecutor's office, Archbishop Pilarczyk entered a plea of nolo contendere regarding five misdemeanor charges of failure to report allegations of child molestation from the 1970s and 1980s.

[54][55] The diocese in 2013 started receiving complaints about the conduct of Reverend Geoff Drew, then posted at Maximilian Kolbe Parish in Liberty Township.

Auxiliary Bishop Joseph R. Binzer received the complaints, but did not forward them to Archbishop Schnurr or take any actions against Drew.

[57] In August 2019, police arrested Drew and charged him with nine counts of sex abuse while serving as a music teacher at St. Ignatius School.

[61] Members of religious orders and congregations staff schools and parishes in the Archdiocese of Cincinnati and serve in a variety of social service roles.

Sarah Peter, a prominent Catholic convert and philanthropist, helped finance the relocation of many religious sisters from Europe to Cincinnati during the 19th century.

Several were owned and operated by the archdiocese, while other interparochial schools were run by groups of parishes under archdiocesan supervision.

The national magazine St. Anthony Messenger is published in Cincinnati by the Franciscan Friars with the archdiocese's ecclesiastical approval.