[5] The Diocese of Salina covers 31 counties in Kansas: Cheyenne, Sherman, Wallace, Logan, Thomas, Rawlins, Decatur, Sheridan, Gove, Trego, Graham, Norton, Phillips, Rooks, Ellis, Russell, Osborne, Smith, Jewell, Mitchell, Lincoln, Ellsworth, Saline, Ottawa, Cloud, Republic, Washington, Clay, Dickinson, Geary, and Riley.

[7] Pope Pius IX in 1850 erected the Vicariate Apostolic of Indian Territory East of the Rocky Mountains.

This huge jurisdiction contained the present-day states of Kansas, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana.

[11][9] In 1855, Miège established his episcopal see in Leavenworth, Kansas, in order to better minister to the growing number of Catholic European settlers there.

[13] Kansas grew so rapidly over the next ten years that Fink petitioned the Vatican to establish two new dioceses in the western part of the state.

With only 20 resident pastors and a growing Catholic population, Scannell attempted to solve the priest shortage by establishing a preparatory seminary in Belleville, laying its cornerstone in June 1890.

During his three-year-long tenure, Scannell also assisted the Sisters of St. Joseph to become permanently established in the diocese, erected 15 churches, and increased the number of diocesan priests from five to 22.

Leo XIII's replacement for Scannell in Salina, Reverend Thaddeus J. Butler, died before his consecration as bishop.

[18] After Cunningham died in 1919, Pope Benedict XV in 1921 named Monsignor Francis Tief of the Archdiocese of Hartford as the third bishop of Concordia.

[21] He ordained 28 priests, built a new episcopal residence and chancery in Concordia (1926–1927), and established the Northwestern Kansas Register as the diocesan newspaper in 1937.

Monsignor Francis Thill from the Archdiocese of Cincinnati was appointed bishop of Concordia in 1938 by Pope Pius XI.

[25] During his tenure, Thill erected or remodeled 25 churches, ten schools, 11 rectories, nine convents, and six chapels.

To replace Thill, Pope Pius XII in 1957 appointed Reverend Frederick Freking, spiritual director of the Pontifical North American College in Rome, as the second bishop of Salina.

The next bishop of Salina was Monsignor Cyril Vogel of the Diocese of Greensburg, named by Pope Paul VI in 1965.

The diocese hired a business manager, and moved the chancery and other administrative offices to a larger building in Salina.

Marymount College in Salina became a diocesan institution after the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia were unable to continue its administration.

[33] During his tenure, he established an Office of Lay Ministry, with a director and an advisory board, funded and initiated by the Catholic Church Extension Society in Chicago, as well as a Rural Life Commission.

To replace Coakley, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Monsignor Edward Weisenburger of Oklahoma city as bishop of Salina.

[37][38] In September 2018, the Archdiocese of Washington announced that former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, the center of a major sexual abuse scandal in the church, would move to the rectory of St. Fidelis Parish in Victoria, Kansas.

Reverend Ron Gilardi, a Capuchin Order priest, was arrested in 2000 on charges of sexually assaulting a minor at Thomas More Prep-Marian High in Hays during 1993.

[45]On August 14, 2020, Melissa Underwood, KBI spokeswoman, stated, "As of Aug. 7, we have had 205 reports of abuse and have opened 120 cases.