The Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend: erected 1857, renamed 1960

Lakeville's Catholic parish lives inside a diocese older than the town, and the diocese's course now stands in the build at full-leg size. The Diocese of Fort Wayne was erected on 8 January 1857 by Pius IX, carved from the Diocese of Vincennes; its first bishop, John Henry Luers, was consecrated on 10 January 1858. The see's church is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at Fort Wayne, dedicated 8 December 1860. In 1960 John XXIII renamed it the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend, acknowledging the second city — Saint Matthew Cathedral, South Bend, stands as co-cathedral — and the diocese spans fourteen counties of northeastern Indiana, St. Joseph among them, which is the whole of Sacred Heart's jurisdictional address. The episcopal succession stands at its anchored points: Luers (1857–1871); Herman Alerding, the bishop of the 1922 charities organisation (the charities file); John F. Noll (1925–1956); Leo A. Pursley (1956–1976); William E. McManus (1976–1985); John M. D'Arcy (1985–2009); and Kevin C. Rhoades — appointed 14 November 2009, installed 13 January 2010, and the diocese's bishop as of November 2026. The parish-level consequences ride in the owning articles (Sacred Heart's 2008 merger into St. Catherine of Siena and its 2010 restoration, conflict C75 carried whole in the religion file): the diocese is the actor in both, and this article is its entrance.

Principal sources: the Diocese of Fort Wayne–South Bend's own record (diocesefwsb.org) and the Catholic-Hierarchy succession record, read November 2026; the banked Churches & Religion lk-rel-sacred-heart and lk-rel-tested (the pointer this article expands).