As per 2015, its bishop pastorally serves 250,692 Catholics on 15,995 km² in 35 parishes with 97 priests, 51 deacons, 66 lay religious, 6 seminarians and 12 missions. It covers the secular Counties of Alpine, Calaveras, Mono, San Joaquin, Stanislaus and Tuolumne. The diocese is geographically and ethnically diverse. The majority of the population lives in the San Joaquin Valley. The two major population cities are Stockton and Modesto. The diocese has shown a significant population increase in all counties except Alpine County. The majority of San Joaquin Valley is farming, and there are many migrant camps in which the Church has a presence. Calaveras, Tuolumne and Alpine counties are located on the western side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. Most parishes in these counties date back to the gold rush days. Mono County is on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range and is usually cut off from the rest of the diocese during winter. The parish church located in Mammoth Lakes provides for the spiritual care of vacationers during the winter and summer. The largest racial/ethnic groups in the Diocese are White and Hispanic. There are also many of Filipino and South East Asian descent. The largest Azorean Portuguese population outside the Azores is found in the Diocese of Stockton. It is estimated that 60% of the diocesan Catholic population is Hispanic. However, this does not imply that Spanish is their first language, only that their heritage is Spanish. The largest Pacific Island community is the Filipino community. Then the next largest ethnic concentration is Vietnamese. The USCCB statement Asian and Pacific Presence lists the Diocese of Stockton as among the top thirty dioceses in the United States with the highest Asian and Pacific Island population. Within the Diocese, Mass is celebrated more than 180 times each Sunday in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Latin and Laotian. Weekday masses are celebrated in these languages and Vietnamese. Its fellow suffragans in the -mainly Californian- ecclesiastical province of the Archbishop of San Francisco include the Dioceses of Honolulu, Las Vegas, Oakland, Reno, Sacramento, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Santa Rosa.
History
The Diocese of Stockton was formed on January 13, 1962 on Californian territories split off from the Archdiocese of San Francisco and from the Diocese of Sacramento. In 1966 it gained more territory from the Diocese of Sacramento.
Sex Abuse and Bankruptcy
In 1998 a jury awarded two brothers $30 million in a judgement against the Diocese of Stockton over its handling of a priest who sexually abused the men while they were boys, starting when they were three. At the trial it was revealed that in a 1976 letter to his superiors Oliver O'Grady, the abusive priest, had admitted to sexually abusing an 11-year-old girl. In 1984 an attorney for the diocese promised to get O'Grady away from children, a promise recorded in a police report. O'Grady abused the boys who later brought the suit from 1978-1991. In 1993 he pleaded guilty to abusing them and was sentenced to 14 years in prison. During the O'Grady trial Mahony claimed that O'Grady was the only accused priest he dealt with in Stockton. Later in 2004 Mahony admitted under oath that parents had confronted him with accusations against another priest in the diocese, Antonio Munoz. In 2014, the Diocese filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy, which was later granted in 2017. As a result of the bankruptcy agreement, approximately $15 million had to be paid to various people who were sexually abused by clergy in the Diocese.
