The first Catholics in present-day Maine were French Jesuit priests who established missions among the Native American tribes.

In 1724, militiamen from the British colonies raided the Abenaki village at Norridgewock, killing scores of inhabitants along with their Jesuit priest, Sébastien Rale.

[2] 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.

[3][4] Jean-Louis Lefebvre de Cheverus, the future first bishop of the Diocese of Boston, performed missionary work with the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy in Maine in 1798.

Early into his tenure as bishop, Healy became involved in a conflict with one of his priests, Jean Ponsardin of Biddeford, Maine.

[13] The Ponsardin matter caused such embarrassment for Healy that he submitted his resignation to Leo XIII in 1878, but the pope rejected it.

[17] He met vocal opposition from groups of French Canadian parishioners over the ownership of parish property, leading Walsh to place six of their leaders under interdict.

Walsh personally led the fight against the Barwise Bill, a Klan-supported measure in the Maine Legislature that would have prevented the state government from providing the Catholic Church with funds for any purpose.

[19] During his five-year tenure in Portland, Murray established thirty new parishes and a diocesan weekly newspaper, Church World, in 1930.

During the Great Depression, Murray organized relief committees to raise money for the homeless and unemployed families.

McCarthy used his power as a corporation sole to alleviate the debt accumulated by Murray by offering the diocesan property holdings as security for a successful bond issue.

Feeney opened new rectories, convents, schools, social centers, parish halls, and the diocesan chancery.

In 1967, Peter Gerety from the Archdiocese of Hartford was appointed by Pope Paul VI as coadjutor bishop of Portland to assist Feeney.

As bishop, Gerety implemented the liturgical reforms of the Second Vatican Council by modernizing the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, through the removal of the high altar, cathedra, pulpit, and communion rail.

During his tenure, O'Leary addressed the problem of an increasing Catholic population in the diocese with a decline in the number of priests.

[17] He encouraged the greater involvement of laity and women in church administration, and developed a system of parish councils.

Gerry consolidated Maine parishes in Old Town, Lisbon, and Waterville and opened St. Dominic Regional High School in Auburn in 2002.

In 2013, Pope Francis named Auxiliary Bishop Robert Deeley of Boston, as Malone's successor in Portland.

After receiving accusations of sexual abuse against him in Boston, the Jesuit Order had transferred Talbot to Cheverus.

[34] By January 2019, the Society of Jesus' Northeast Province in the United States had acknowledged seven accused Jesuit clergy had taught at Cheverus.

[38] Ronald Paquin, a priest with the Archdiocese of Boston, was convicted in Maine in November 2018 of 11 counts of sexual abuse.

The parish traces its roots to 1872 and grew due to a wave of late 19th century immigration by French Canadians.

John Bapst oversaw construction of the church beginning in 1855, and in 1973 it was added to the National Register of Historic Places.

The diocese did not have a position on the February 1998 vote, citing ambiguities in the law while acknowledging discrimination as unjust.