The first known mass in the Eastern Bay region was celebrated in 1772 by the missionary Juan Crespí near present-day Lake Merritt during the first European visit there.

The Mission San José was established in 1797 by Fermin de Lasuen in present-day Fremont to evangelize the Chochenyo people.

[5] In 1962, Pope John XXIII erected the Diocese of Oakland, taking Alameda and Contra Costa counties from the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

[12] The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake caused catastrophic damage to Saint Francis de Sales Cathedral and Sacred Heart Church.

Facing a repair cost of $8 million for both facilities, Cummins opted to demolish them and plan a new cathedral instead.

[14] In 2011, Cordileone was made chairman of the American Bishops' conference's Ad Hoc Committee for the Defense of Marriage.

[16] In 2014, Barber transferred two pastors, one of whom was openly gay, from Newman Hall Holy Spirit Parish in Berkeley.

[17][18] In 2019, Barber positioned himself against the proposed California State Senate Bill 360, which would require priests to break the seal of confession and report sexual abuse of minors.

She had accused Francis, pastor of St. Bede Parish in Hayward, of raping her "ritualistically and sadistically" several times, beginning when she was six years old.

In 2005, Reverend Tim Stier from Corpus Christi Catholic Parish in Fremont resigned in protest at the failure of the diocese to address sexuality problems in priests.

Stier described the diocese as hiding or ignoring the child sex abuse cases, and not holding its leaders accountable.

In 1978, Kiesle had pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor charge of lewd conduct for tying up and molesting two boys in a church rectory.

[26] In February 1982, Bishop Cummins wrote to Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, then head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith in Rome, forwarding a request from Kiesle to be laicized.

[30] Bishop Vigneron in 2008 opened a Healing Garden at the Cathedral of Christ the Light, dedicated to victims of clergy sexual abuse.

[33] The California Supreme Court in 2012 ruled against a 2007 sexual abuse lawsuit brought by the six Quarry brothers against the diocese.

The court stated that since the one-year extension on the expired statute of limitations had ended, the brothers could not sue the diocese.

[34] In July 2020, Reverend Varghese Alengadan from St. Joseph Basilica in Alameda was charged with committing sexual battery against a woman in 2019.

[36] In December 2020, the diocese paid $3.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by a former seminarian who claimed he was raped by a diocesan priest in Livermore in 2017.

Joseph Piscitelli, a 1970s victim in the diocese of Oakland whose 2020 case was put on hold when the diocese declared bankruptcy in 2023, said "Oakland could get together enough money to build a $200m cathedral not too long ago, but they can't get the money together to pay the child victims whom they raped for decades".