In 1839, after the 1836 founding of the Texas Republic, Pope Gregory XVI erected the prefecture apostolic of Texas, covering its present-day area. The prefecture was elevated to a vicariate apostolic in 1846, the year that Texas became an American state. On May 4, 1847, Pope Pius IX elevated the vicariate into the Diocese of Galveston.[4] The Beaumont area would remain part of several Texas dioceses for the next 119 years.
1966 to 1994
On September 29, 1966, Pope Paul VI established the Diocese of Beaumont and appointed Reverend Vincent Harris of the Diocese of Galveston as its first bishop.[5][6] For the next five years, Harris worked to organize the new diocese and implement the decrees of the Second Vatican Council.[7] During the 1960s, Harris put pressure on segregated Knights of Columbus councils in the diocese that refused to admit African-Americans.[8] In 1971, Paul VI named Harris as coadjutor bishop of the Diocese of Austin.[9]
To replace Harris in Beaumont, Paul VI appointed Bishop Warren Boudreaux of the Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana in 1971. After the end of the Vietnam War, the diocese received national recognition for its resettlement of refugees from what was then South Vietnam. In 1974, Boudreaux began an outreach effort to people who made their living harvesting seafood and working on ships.[10] Paul VI named Boudreaux as bishop of the Diocese of Houma-Thibodaux in 1977.
Paul VI named Bishop Bernard J. Ganter of the Diocese of Tulsa as the third bishop of Beaumont in 1977. As bishop, Ganter established five new parishes, including the first Vietnamese-language parish in the United States.[11] He started the permanent diaconate and ordained 36 men between 1979 and 1992.[12] Ganter also established a Catholic Charities office, a diocesan financial board, a retreat center, and a biblical school for adults.[12] Ganter died in 1993.
In 1978, Reverend Judd Sivkovski, pastor at Assumption Church in Beaumont, was charged with sexually abusing a seven year old boy at his home.[15]
David Arceneaux of Nederland, Texas, sued the Diocese of Beaumont in 2010, claiming that he had been sexually abused by two diocesan priests, August Pucar and Roger Thibodeaux, when he was a minor.[16]
Pucar was removed from ministerial duties in 2006 and ordered to a life of penance and prayer in 2007.[17]
In 2012, the diocese was sued by a man who claimed to have been sexually abused as a 14 year old by Revered Ronald Bollich in 1976 in Nacogdoches (now part of the Diocese of Tyler).[18] Bollich had been suspended from ministry in 1994. Four other plaintiffs then joined the lawsuit. The Diocese of Beaumont settled the lawsuit in 2013.[19]
In 2019, the diocese issued a list of 13 clergy, living and deceased, with credible accusations of sexual abuse of minors.[20]
Coat of arms of Roman Catholic Diocese of Beaumont
Notes
Arms was designed and adopted when the diocese was erected
Adopted
1966
Escutcheon
The diocesan arms consists of a blue field on which is seen, issuing from the base of the shield, a golden (yellow) hill. On this hill is a golden (yellow) vase that is charged with Chi Rho in red. Above the vase are a silver (white) star between two silver (white) roses.
Symbolism
The golden (yellow) hill is to cant, or play on, the name of the see city of Beaumont: "beautiful hill." The vase signifies an oil vial that stores the sacred oils used in the administration of the sacraments. The vase also refers to the oil reserves of oil that constitute the region's oil extraction industry.
Above the vase are a silver (white) star between two silver (white) roses. The star comes from the Texas flag and seal, "The Lone Star State." The roses come from the coat of arms of the Diocese of Galveston-Houston, from which the Diocese of Beaumont was erected in 1966.
