When French explorer Jean Nicolet entered the Green Bay areas in 1634, he was followed by Jesuit missionaries.

Allouez celebrated Mass with a Native American tribe near present-day Oconto, Wisconsin in December 1669, the feast of St. Francis Xavier.

The missionaries worked with the Fox, Sauk, and Winnebago tribes, protected by Fort Francis near Green Bay.

[3] When the British took control of New France in 1763 after the French and Indian Wars, the bishops in Quebec continued to have jurisdiction in the region.

Although the Green Bay area had many French-Canadian Catholic residents, new settlements were populated by other European immigrants pouring into Wisconsin.

In 1875, Monsignor Francis Krautbauer from the Diocese of Buffalo was appointed by Pope Pius IX to succeed Melcher as bishop of Green Bay.

The next bishop of Green Bay was Monsignor Frederick Katzer from Milwaukee, named by Pope Leo XIII in 1886.

To replace Katzer in Green Bay, Leo XIII selected Reverend Sebastian Messmer as the next bishop in 1891.

[16] He also invited Abbot Bernard Pennings to establish the Norbertine Order in the United States; they founded St. Norbert College in De Pere.

[18] During his tenure, Fox built a new episcopal residence, which later became the diocesan chancery and displayed a strong interest in education and advancing the parochial school system.

During his tenure, Rhode established ten parishes and 19 parochial schools, and organized the diocesan Catholic Charities and a department of education.

Pope John Paul II that same year named Reverend Adam Maida of the Diocese of Pittsburgh as Wycisło's replacement.

John Paul II then appointed Auxiliary Bishop David Zubik from Pittsburgh to replaced Banks.

[30] In September 2002, Reverend John Feeney was arrested in Los Angeles on warrants from Outagamie County charging him with child sexual assault.

[31] He was accused of sexually assaulting brothers Troy and Todd Merryfield when they were young teenagers at St. Nicholas Parish in Freedom in 1978.

[32] The Merryfield brothers sued the diocese in 2008, saying it committed fraud by transferring Feeney to other parishes and not informing parishioners about his background.

[35] Reverend Donald Buzanowski was convicted in 2005 of sexually assaulting David Schauer in 1988 when he was a student at Saints Peter and Paul School in Green Bay.

[38] The diocese was sued in Nevada in October 2012 by a Las Vegas man who stated he was sexually abused by Feeney at age 13 when he was serving in that city during the 1980s.

[40] Reverend Richard Thomas, a retired priest, was sentenced in October 2016 to four months in jail for exposing himself to a 16-year-old boy.

During March of that year, Thomas exposed himself on several occasions through the window of his retirement facility to the boy as he walked to school.

In January 2019, the diocese released a list of 46 diocesan clergy who were credibly accused of committing acts of sex abuse.