The 11th bishop, the Most Reverend Gerard Louis Frey, succeeded Bishop McDonough on the latter’s promotion. Father Frey was ordained a priest on April 2, 1938. His appointment as Bishop of Savannah came on May 31, 1967, with ordination the following August 8.

Under his leadership, all parishes of the diocese were asked to establish pastoral councils. Deanery pastoral councils and a diocesan council were formed. Bishop Frey presided over a transitional period in which the renewal of the Church’s life and ministry, decreed by the Second Vatican Council, was implemented, while integration accelerated after the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Bishop Frey remained in Savannah only five years before Pope Paul VI transferred him to Lafayette, Louisiana, on November 7, 1972. He retired on May 13, 1989. Bishop Frey died on August 16, 2007.