Before the American Revolution, the British Province of Massachusetts Bay, which included the Springfield area, enacted laws prohibiting the practice of Catholicism in the colony.

[1] After the Revolution ended in 1783, Pope Pius VI moved to remove American Catholics from the jurisdiction of the Diocese of London.

He established a hospital in Holyoke, Massachusetts that was operated by the Sisters of Providence and opened orphanages in Holyoak and Worcester.

In addition to French and Irish parishes, Beaven established churches in the diocese for Polish, Italian, Lithuanian, Slovakian and Maronite Rite Catholics.

[7] During his tenure, he opened the Beaven-Kelly Home for senior men; a home for abandoned infants; hospitals in Worcester, Springfield, Montague, and Adams; orphanages in Holyoke, Worcester, and Leicester; a House of the Good Shepherd at Springfield; and residences for single working women in many places.

Pope Benedict XV named Monsignor Thomas O'Leary from the Diocese of Manchester as the new bishop of Springfield.

During his tenure, he introduced the Passionists and Sisters of Providence, expanded Mercy Hospital in Springfield and opened 24 new parishes.

He added a wing to Farren Memorial Hospital in Montague, Massachusetts, and built Mont Marie, the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield.

Scahill had been withholding part of the parish collection to protest continued diocese support of Reverend Richard Lavigne, a priest convicted of child molestation in 1992.

The diocese in January 2019 placed restrictions on the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, a religious association in Richmond.

[20] In December 2019, Rozanski banned the Pioneer Valley Gay Men's Chorus from singing in a Christmas caroling concert at St. Theresa's of Lisieux Parish in South Hadley.

As of 2024, the current bishop of the Diocese of Springfield in Massachusetts is William Draper Byrne from the Archdiocese of Washington, named by Francis in 2020.

In July 2021, the dying Levigne admitted to a Massachusetts State Police detective that he had seen Croteau's body floating down the river, but claimed he did not kill him.

Dunn complained to a diocesan review board in 1997, which agreed she was the target of "sexual exploitation" and recommended Savage "be removed from his priestly duties and parish work immediately."

[24] On September 24, 2004, Bishop Dupré was indicted by a Hampden County grand jury on two counts of child molestation.

In June 2020, an investigation by retired Superior Court Judge Peter A. Velis found the victim's claim "to be unequivocally credible."

[36] In July 2022, the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts rejected the diocesan claim that the church was protected by charitable immunity and denied its motion for a dismissal.

The court based this decision on the argument that sexual assault against children does not "involve conduct related to a charitable mission.

"[37] In 2022, the diocese faced another lawsuit in Hampden Superior Court from an 84 year-old Chicopee woman over allegations her parish priest grabbed her buttocks during a mass in 2019.

The lawsuit stated that she made a report to the Franciscan order and to the diocese, speaking with Jeffrey Trant, director of the Office of Safe Environment and Victim Assistance.

[38] From 2011 and 2019 the Catholic church in Massachusetts spent over half a million dollars lobbying against laws designed to help survivors of sexual abuse.