The Diocese of Des Moines () is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in the southwestern quarter of the U.S. state of Iowa. It is a suffragan see in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Dubuque. The see city for the diocese is Des Moines. The cathedral parish for the diocese is St. Ambrose. Currently Bishop William Michael Joensen is the bishop of the diocese. History Like other American dioceses, the area that makes up the present diocese was under the jurisdiction of a number of prelates. Most of these were purely academic because of no actual Catholic presence in the area. In the 19th century, the area came under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Saint Louis Joseph Rosati. It was under his jurisdiction that the first permanent Catholic presence came to what would be the state of Iowa. In 1838, the Diocese of Dubuque was founded. Initially, the area of the Dubuque Diocese included all of Iowa, as well as a large part of the western United States. By 1850 the Diocese's territory came to cover the state of Iowa. Bishop John Hennessey soon came to believe that the southern half of the state would be better served by its own Diocese. While he envisioned Des Moines as the See City for this new diocese, on May 8, 1881, the southern half of Iowa was taken from the Dubuque Diocese and formed into the new Diocese of Davenport. For just over 30 years the area that now makes up the Des Moines Diocese was part of the Diocese of Davenport. Territory was then taken from the Diocese of Davenport on August 12, 1911, to form the Diocese of Des Moines. The territory that was taken to form the Davenport Diocese is the current territory of the Diocese. When the Des Moines Diocese was established, Saint Ambrose Parish church became the cathedral for the new diocese. Reports of sex abuse In January 2015, Pope Francis laicized Diocese of Des Moines priest Howard Fitzgerald, who was accused of committing acts of sex abuse. Fitzgerald had previously been placed on administrative leave in 2014. On March 20, 2020, It was announced that well-known Catholic priest and professor at Davenport's St. Ambrose University Rev. Robert L. "Bud" Grant, was suspended from teaching and practicing ministry after a sex abuse allegation surfaced The alleged sex abuse