Roman Catholic Diocese of San Angelo

The Diocese of San Angelo (Latin: Dioecesis Angeliana, Spanish: Diócesis de San Angelo) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory, or diocese, of the Catholic Church in Central and West Texas in the United States.

[2] Encompassing some 37,433 square miles (96,950 km2), the Diocese of San Angelo comprises the following 29 counties: Andrews, Brown, Callahan, Coke, Coleman, Concho, Crane, Crockett, Ector, Glasscock, Howard, Irion, Kimble, Martin, McCulloch, Menard, Midland, Mitchell, Nolan, Pecos, Reagan, Runnels, Schleicher, Sterling, Sutton, Taylor, Terrell, Tom Green, and Upton.

The major cities in the diocese are Abilene, Big Spring, Brownwood, Fort Stockton, Midland, Odessa, San Angelo, and Sweetwater.

The first Catholic presence in the region was the visit of the missionaries Alonso de Benavides and Juan Salas to the Jumanos people in 1629.

After the American Civil War ended in 1865, a new Catholic mission was founded in 1867 at Ben Ficklin, Texas, to serve US Army troops stationed at the new Fort Concho.

[8] The second bishop of San Angelo was Reverend Thomas Tschoepe of the Diocese of Dallas, named by Pope Paul VI in 1966.

To replace Leven, Pope John Paul II appointed Monsignor Joseph Fiorenza of the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston as the next bishop of San Angelo in 1979.

The plaintiff claimed that Reverend David Espitia of St. Ann's Parish in Colorado City had sexually abused him from 1994, when he was age eight, to 2002, and that the diocese covered up the crimes.

[18] The 2018 Pennsylvania Grand Jury Report on sexual abuse by clergy included a section on the transfer of Reverend Thomas C. Kelley from the Diocese of Erie in Pennsylvania, to the Diocese of San Angelo, despite a record of sexual abuse of young men.

Five young Pennsylvania men had accused Kelley of making sexual advances towards them, either at a high school or in the seminary.

[19] On January 31, 2019, the Diocese of San Angelo published a list of 12 priests and one deacon with credible accusations of sexual abuse of children.