Archbishop of Liverpool

:"This article is about the bishop in the Catholic Church, for the bishop in the Church of England, see: Bishop of Liverpool."The Archbishop of Liverpool heads the Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool in England. As such he is the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Liverpool, known also on occasion as the Northern Province.

History

With the gradual abolition of the legal restrictions on the activities of Catholics in England and Wales in the early 19th century, Rome decided to proceed to bridge the gap of the centuries from Queen Elizabeth I by instituting Catholic dioceses on the regular historical pattern. Thus Pope Pius IX issued the Bull "Universalis Ecclesiae" of 29 September 1850 by which thirteen new dioceses which did not formally claim any continuity with the pre-Elizabethan English dioceses were created.

One of these was the diocese of Liverpool. At is creation it compromised the Hundreds of West Derby and Leyland in Lancashire and the Isle of Man.

In the early period from 1850 the diocese was a suffragan of the Metropolitan See of Westminster, but a further development was the creation under Pope Pius X, on 28 October 1911, of a new Province of Liverpool.

Location

The archdiocese covers an area of 1,165 km² (450 sq. mi.) of the west of the County of Lancashire south of the Ribble, parts of Merseyside, Cheshire, Greater Manchester ( The historic Hundreds of West Derby and Leyland} and the Isle of Man. The see is in the City of Liverpool, where the Archbishop's "cathedra" or seat is located in the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Christ the King, which was dedicated on 14 May 1967.

The Archbishop's residence is Archbishop's House, Carnatic Road, Liverpool.

The current archbishop is His Grace the Most Reverend Patrick Altham Kelly, MKHS, STL, PhL, the 11th Bishop and 8th Metropolitan Archbishop of Liverpool.

The archbishop is currently supported by Auxiliary Bishop The Right Reverend Thomas Anthony Williams. The Right Reverend Vincent Malone retired in October 2006.

List of Ordinaries of Liverpool

ee also

*Lists of office-holders