1860 to 1931

With the discovery of gold in the western foothills of Nevada in 1858, large numbers of miners started flooding into the region, establishing mining towns. That same year, Archbishop Joseph Alemany of the Archdiocese of San Francisco sent Reverend Joseph Gallagher to the mining towns to tend to the Catholic population. Two years later, the Vatican placed western Nevada under the new Diocese of Grass Valley in California.^[3] Bishop Eugene O’Connell of Grass Valley started sending more priests to Nevada to establish missions and build churches.^[3]

The first Catholic church in Nevada was constructed in Virginia City in 1860 to serve the miners in that town. Another Catholic church was constructed in Carson City around the same time.^[4] The first church in Reno was Saint Mary's, constructed there in 1871.^[5] St. Thomas Church, the future cathedral, was finished in Reno in 1910.

In 1915, Archbishop James J. Keane wrote a letter to the Apostolic Delegate to the United States, Diomede Falconio, advocating a bishop for Nevada, citing the difficulties of the California diocese in providing coverage there. However, nothing came from Keane's initiative.^[3]

While traveling west through Nevada by train during the 1920s, Cardinal George Mundelein, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Chicago, asked about which bishop was in charge of the state. When he found out that Nevada did not have its own bishop, he pushed the Vatican to establish a diocese there, offering support from his archdiocese.^[3]

1931 to 1986

Pope Pius XI established the Diocese of Reno on March 27, 1931. The pope named Reverend Thomas Gorman of the Diocese of Monterey-Los Angeles as the first bishop of Reno.^[6][7] At its founding, the diocese had a Catholic population of approximately 8,000.^[3]

Under Gorman, the diocese opened soup kitchens and homeless shelters in Reno in the 1930s as a response to the Great Depression.^[8] During World War II, he created USO centers for soldiers on leave, African-American wartime workers and residents in Boulder City.^[8] Gorman became coadjutor bishop for the Diocese of Dallas in 1952.

The second bishop of Reno was Robert Dwyer of the Diocese of Salt Lake City, named by Pope Pius XII in 1952. In 1966, Dwyer became archbishop of the Archdiocese of Portland. To replace Dwyer, Pope Paul VI in 1966 named Auxiliary Bishop Michael Green of the Diocese of Lansing as the new bishop of Reno.^[9] Green retired in 1974. Paul VI appointed Auxiliary Bishop Norman McFarland of San Francisco to succeed Green in Reno in 1976. That same year, the pope renamed the Diocese of Reno as the Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas to acknowledge the explosive population growth of Las Vegas. McFarland was appointed bishop of the Diocese of Orange in 1986.

1986 to 2010

The second bishop of Reno-Las Vegas was Auxiliary Bishop Daniel F. Walsh of San Francisco, named by Pope John Paul II in 1986.^[10] When the pope split southern Nevada into the new Diocese of Las Vegas in 1995, he named Walsh as its first bishop. The Diocese of Reno-Las Vegas reverted to the Diocese of Reno.^[9]

The first bishop of the reestablished Diocese of Reno was Bishop Phillip Straling from the Diocese of San Bernardino, named by John Paul II in 1995.^[11] Straling retired in 2005. That same year, Pope Benedict XVI appointed Monsignor Randolph Calvo of San Francisco as the next bishop of Reno.

In 2009, Calvo was named in a lawsuit by Richard DeMolen, the former pastor of Our Lady of Tahoe Catholic Parish in Zephyr Cove, Nevada. Calvo had fired DeMolen because the priest had refused to remove a restraining order he filed against a diocesan deacon. DeMolen claimed the deacon had sent him a death threat, which Calvo never investigated. The lawsuit was dismissed in 2010.^[12]

2010 to present

Nick Nicosia, former lay administrator of St. Mary's in the Mountains church in Virginia City, sued the diocese in 2010 over his termination from this job. Nicosia claimed the diocese fired him because he objected to a donation from the former owner of Mustang Ranch, a legal brothel in Sparks, to a church restoration project. The diocese said they removed him from the position because a priest was available to take the position.^[13] Calvo retired in 2021.

Pope Francis in 2021 named Auxiliary Bishop Daniel Mueggenborg from the Archdiocese of Seattle as the next bishop of Reno. As of 2023, Mueggenborg is the bishop of Reno.^[14][15] The diocese became part of the Archdiocese of Las Vegas's ecclesiastical province upon the archdiocese's elevation as a metropolitan see in May 2023.^[2]

Sex abuse

Reverend Edmund Boyle, a chaplain at St. Mary's Hospital in Reno, was charged in 1987 with sexually molesting a 12 year old boy. The developmentally disabled victim was terminally ill. A nurse discovered Boyle exposing himself to the boy at Riverside Hospital for Skilled Care.^[16] He was later convicted of lewdness with a child.^[17] Boyle was later accused of sexually abusing minors in Washington State and Oregon.

A Reno woman received a $50,000 settlement from the diocese in November 2004. The victim said she had been raped by Reverend David Brusky, a member of the Society of the Divine Savior, during the 1970s when she was a teenager. Five other women also came forward with abuse allegations against Brusky.^[18]He was also accused of abuse in the Diocese of Santa Rosa in California.^[19]

In 2010, Bishop Calvo placed Reverend Tom Cronin, a priest at St. Mary's in the Mountains Parish in Virginia City, on leave due to a sexual abuse allegation from Missouri. Calvo had read that Cronin was being sued in Kansas City, Missouri, by a woman who claimed he molested at age 17 in Hamilton, Missouri. Cronin moved to the Reno area to work as a chaplain in 1996. Calvo was criticized for not suspending Cronin immediately. Cronin was never returned to ministry.^[20]

The diocese in 2019 published a list of 12 clergy with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors, dating back 80 years.^[21]

The diocese in 2022 suspended Reverend Patrick Klekas from ministry after having an inappropriate relationship with an adult woman. In June 2023, the diocese announced that he was the subject of a criminal investigation and would remain suspended.^[22]

Bishops of Reno

1. Thomas Kiely Gorman (1931–1952), appointed Bishop of Dallas
2. Robert Joseph Dwyer (1952–1967), appointed Archbishop of Portland in Oregon
3. Michael Joseph Green (1967–1974)
4. Norman Francis McFarland (1974–1976)

Bishops of Reno-Las Vegas

1. Norman Francis McFarland (1976–1986), appointed Bishop of Orange
2. Daniel F. Walsh (1986–1995), appointed Bishop of Las Vegas and later Bishop of Santa Rosa in California

Bishops of Reno

1. Phillip Francis Straling (1995–2005)
2. Randolph Roque Calvo (2006–2021)
3. Daniel Henry Mueggenborg (2021–present)

Priest who became bishop of another diocese

Thomas Joseph Connolly, appointed Bishop of Baker in 1971

Superintendents

• Br. Matthew Cunningham, FSR (1990–2000)
• Kitty Bergin (2002–2011)
• Karen Barreras (2011–2022)
• Matthew Schiambari (2022–present)

High school

• Bishop Manogue High School – Reno

Elementary schools and preschools

• Holy Child Learning Center – Reno
• Little Flower School – Reno
• Our Lady of the Snows School – Reno
• Saint Albert the Great Child Development Center – Reno
• Saint Albert the Great School – Reno
• St. Teresa of Avila Preschool – Carson City
• St. Teresa of Avila School – Carson City