Diocese of Lafayette in Louisiana

Erected in 1918 from territory carved out of the Archdiocese of New Orleans, the Diocese of Lafayette covers the Cajun heartland of south-central Louisiana — including Lafayette, St. Landry, Evangeline, Acadia, Iberia, St. Mary, St. Martin, and Vermilion civil parishes — and serves roughly 150 parishes. Its cathedral, the Cathedral of St. John the Evangelist in Lafayette, anchors a region whose Catholic identity stretches back to 18th-century Acadian exiles who brought their French language and faith from eastern Canada.