Several years after the American Revolution in 1789, Pope Pius VI erected the Diocese of Baltimore, covering the entire United States.

In 1808, Pope Pius VII erected the Diocese of Bardstown, with jurisdiction over the Indiana Territory and other areas in the Midwest.

[2] The Diocese of Vincennes was created in 1834 by Pope Gregory XVI to cover the entire state of Indiana and part of Illinois.

[5] Monsignor John Carberry of the Diocese of Brooklyn was appointed coadjutor bishop of Lafayette in Indiana to assist Bennett in 1956 by Pius XII.

[6] In August 1965, Paul VI appointed Monsignor Raymond Gallagher of the Diocese of Cleveland as the next bishop of Lafayette in Indiana.

With Gallagher's retirement in 1982, Auxiliary Bishop George Fulcher of the Diocese of Columbus was appointed by Pope John Paul II as his replacement.

[12] In July 2020, Doherty suspended Theodore Rothrock, a priest at St. Elizabeth Seton Parish in Carmel, from public ministry.

[14] Also in 1988, Reverend Ken Bollinger was removed from public ministry by the diocese after it received complaints of him sexually abusing teenage boys.

[14] In 1997, the Indianapolis Star and News published a series of articles on sexual abuse allegations against priests in the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana and the mishandling of these cases by diocesan officials.

[18] The diocese was sued in September 2018 by a man who claimed that he had been sexually abused as a minor by Reverend James Grear at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in 1982.

[15] In 2020, a Navajo Nation man sued the diocese, claiming that he had been abused by Grear after he moved to Arizona.

The 2020 plaintiff accused the Diocese of Lafayette in Indiana of covering up Grear's history of sexual abuse crimes when he transferred.

[20] The diocese in March 2022 suspended Reverend James DeOreo from ministry after it received allegation of sexual abuse and other offenses from a minor.