Diocese of Tyler

www.dioceseoftyler.org

About the Diocese of Tyler

The Diocese of Tyler was established on December 12, 1986, by an Apostolic Bull of Pope St. John Paul II. The new diocese was created out of territory from the Dioceses of Dallas, Beaumont and Galveston-Houston.

The Diocese of Tyler includes 33 counties and 23,443 square miles of Northeast Texas. The territory is divided into 51 parishes, 19 missions and three pastoral centers. The total population of the diocesan territory is 1.4 million, of which 120,528 are Catholic.

As of 2014, 79 priests were in active ministry in the diocese with another nine serving outside the diocese and 13 retired. There are also 102 permanent deacons in the Diocese. Twelve men are studying for priesthood for the diocese.

Four Catholic Hospitals and eight centers for social services are located within the diocese, along with seven Catholic schools.

The first Bishop of Tyler was Charles E. Herzig who was ordained concurrently with the canonical erection of the diocese on February 24, 1987. Bishop Herzig died in office on September 7, 1991.

On March 24, 1992, Bishop Edmond Carmody, an auxiliary bishop of San Antonio, was appointed Bishop of Tyler and was installed in May of the same year. Bishop Carmody led the diocese until March of 2000 when he was transferred to Corpus Christi by Pope John Paul II.

In December of 2000, Bishop Alvaro Corrada del Rio, SJ, at the time auxiliary bishop of Washington, D.C. and Apostolic Administrator of Cauguas in Puerto Rico, was named Bishop of Tyler and he was installed on January 30, 2001.

On December 29, 2004 the Diocese of Tyler was made part of the newly formed ecclesiastic province of Galveston-Houston, with the Archbishop of Galveston-Houston serving as Metropolitan for the province.

After ten years in Tyler, Pope Benedict XVI transferred Bishop Corrada to the Diocese of Mayaguez in Puerto Rico, on July 6, 2011.

After waiting 15 months for a new Bishop, the people of East Texas were rewarded on September 29, 2012, when Pope Benedict XVI appointed Msgr. Joseph E. Strickland as the fourth Bishop of Tyler. He was ordained on November 28.