On July 2, 1956, the Vatican announced the formation of the Diocese of Jefferson City, MO.  Carved out of the Archdiocese of St. Louis, the Diocese of Kansas City, and the suppressed Diocese of St. Joseph, the new diocese was composed of 38 counties in northern and central Missouri covering over 22,000 square miles.  In August 1956, Most. Rev. Joseph Marling was appointed the first Bishop of the Diocese of Jefferson City.

During his tenure, he oversaw the construction of a new cathedral, twenty-five churches, twenty-nine schools, thirty rectories, sixteen convents, and a Carmelite monastery. The Bishop also established the diocesan newspaper and missions in Peru. He attended the Second Vatican Council from 1962 to 1965.

On July 2, 1969, Pope Paul VI accepted Marling's resignation as bishop of Jefferson City and appointed him as titular bishop of Lesina, a post which he gave up on January 16, 1976.

Joseph Marling died in Kansas City, at age 75. His remains were interred in the Precious Blood Community Cemetery on the seminary grounds in Carthagena, Ohio.

On August 18, 1969, Bishop Michael F. McAuliffe was ordained and installed as the second bishop of the Diocese of Jefferson City following the retirement of Bishop Joseph Marling. 

On January 6, 2006, after 28 years of shepherding the Diocese of Jefferson City, Bishop Michael McAuliffe passed to his eternal reward and his funeral Mass was celebrated on January 14 at the Cathedral of St. Joseph in Jefferson City, Missouri.

On August 27, 1997, Bishop John Raymond Gaydos was ordained and installed as the third bishop of Jefferson City. The Most Rev. Justin Rigali, Archbishop of St. Louis, was principal consecrator with the Most Rev. Oscar Lipscomb of Mobile, Alabama and the Most Rev. Michael F. McAuliffe, Bishop Emeritus of Jefferson City as co-consecrators. 

In 2017, Gaydos sent a letter of resignation to Pope Francis, asking for early retirement due to health reasons. The pope accepted his resignation on November 21, 2017.

Bishop W. Shawn McKnight was born on June 26, 1968 and grew up in a large Catholic family and attended Catholic schools.

He was ordained a priest for the Diocese of Wichita on May 28, 1994. He earned a Master of Arts degree and a Master of Divinity degree from the Pontifical College Josephinum (1993-1994) and earned a Licentiate of Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm in Rome in 1999.

Bishop McKnight served as chaplain at Newman University in Wichita from 2000 to 2001, where at the same time he was an adjunct professor of theology and visiting scholar at the university’s Bishop Gerber Institute of Catholic Studies. In 2001, he earned a Doctor of Sacred Theology, also from the Pontifical Athenaeum of St. Anselm, and wrote a dissertation on the permanent diaconate. He later taught liturgy and homiletics at the Pontifical College Josephinum seminary from 2003 to 2008, where he also served as director of liturgy, dean of students, director of formation in the school of theology, and vice-president for development and alumni relations.

From 2010 to 2016, he served in Washington, D.C., as executive director of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops’ (USCCB) Secretariat for Clergy, Consecrated Life and Vocations.

Bishop McKnight also holds a Bachelor of Science degree in biochemistry from the University of Dallas.

He was pastor at the Church of the Magdalen in Wichita, Kansas from July 2016 to January 2018.

He was ordained the fourth bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Jefferson City, Missouri on February 6, 2018.