Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth

Diocese
name=Diocese of Portsmouth


province=Province of Southwark
parishes=
members=
subdivisions=
bishop=Bishop of Portsmouth
cathedral=Portsmouth Cathedral
website=http://www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk/The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth is a Latin Rite Roman Catholic diocese in England. The episcopal see is the Portsmouth Cathedral and is headed by the Bishop of Portsmouth. The diocese is part of the metropolitan Province of Southwark, which covers the far South of England.

Location

The Diocese of Portsmouth, situated centrally within the Metropolitan Province of Southwark, extending as far as Abingdon in the North; and down to and including the Channel Islands in the South, and roughly from Liphook in the East to Andover in the West. The Diocese adjoins the dioceses of Birmingham and Northampton to the North, the diocese of Arundel & Brighton to the East and the dioceses of Plymouth and Clifton to the West. It officially comprises the counties of Hampshire, Berkshire (south of the Thames), Oxfordshire (south of the Thames), Dorset (the Bournemouth area), the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands.

The area of the Diocese of Portsmouth is 6,339 km² (2,447sq Miles) and has a total population (2001 census) of 2,960,077. Its estimated catholic population (2004) is 167,000. There are 112 parishes (2005) and 128 incardinated priests, with a further 86 from religious orders, congregations & societies. There are also 31 permanent deacons serving in the parishes plus 101 professed non-priest religious and 255 professed women religious. Education comprises 48 primary/middle/ecumenical schools (aided and grant maintained), 8 secondary and 24 independent schools which completes the picture.

History

By a Papal Brief dated 19th May 1882, Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Portsmouth. It was formed out of the western portion of the Diocese of Southwark as constituted at the re-establishment of the hierarchy in 1850. It comprised the counties of Hampshire, Berkshire, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands. It was thus almost co-terminus with the limits of the Old Catholic See of Winchester. The obvious place for the Cathedral and Curia of the new Diocese was Winchester. But the Ecclesiastical Titles Act forbade a Catholic Diocese of an Anglican See. It would then appear that the original idea was to fix the See at Southampton, with St. Joseph's Church in Bugle Street as the Pro-Cathedral. But a large parish church had begun in the centre of Portsmouth, so it was decided to make it the future Cathedral of the Diocese. In 1882 the Diocese had about 49 priests and 55 Missions, as parishes were then called. The new diocese was small at its beginning, but it was a sign that two centuries of Penal Laws had not destroyed the Old Religion.

The Catholic faith survived in the main through the help of the Old Catholic landed families who with great secrecy enabled the Sacrifice of the Mass to continue as well as providing at great cost to their lives protection to the priests by hiding them secretly. It was not without this great persecution and great suffering that the Faith remained alive and as the years past and the Penal Laws were not applied with their old severity it became possible, with care, for the Mass to be celebrated.

In 1730 Richard Challoner (later ordained Bishop in 1741) arrived in England from Douai and set to work in what was then called the London District, of which the county of Hampshire formed part, celebrating Mass in Embassy Chapels where Mass could be said publicly, as all worship had to be in secret preferably in ale houses and cockpits where the presence of a crowd would not arouse too much suspicion.

The Roman Catholic Relief Act 1791 gave Catholics new hope, but it was not until 1829 (Civil Emancipation) when it became possible to celebrate Mass publicly in England under sanction of the law and Catholic chapels could exist legally, if licensed and provided that they had neither steeples nor bells!

The 'birth' of the Diocese of Portsmouth, if it can be described as such, came about because the Diocese of Southwark had become too large for one Bishop, extending as it did from London to Bournemouth and from the outskirts of Oxford to Dover and including the Channel Islands. And so in 1882 the counties of Hampshire, Berkshire, the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands were cut off from Southwark and made into a new diocese, and in that same year Dr. John Vertue (1882-1900) was appointed the first Bishop of the new Diocese of Portsmouth. He was consecrated by Cardinal Manning on 25th July 1882 and on 10th August of that year opened the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist at Portsmouth. When the new Bishop took possession of his See, there were 55 public chapels and 49 priests in the diocese.

Since then the church has enjoyed sustained periods of growth going from strength to strength under the tender care and watchful eyes of six bishops: John Cahill, 1900-1910; William Cotter (who came from Cloyne in Co. Cork), 1910-1940; John Henry King (who was given the personal title of Archbishop in 1954), 1941-1965; Derek Worlock (Translated to Liverpool as Archbishop 7th February 1976), 1965-1976; Anthony Emery, 1976-1988; and now from 1988 the Diocese is in the loving and skilful guiding hands of Bishop Crispian Hollis.

Bishop

Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth, was educated at Stonyhurst College.

He was ordained priest on 11th July 1965.

He was installed as Bishop of Portsmouth on 27th January 1989. He has been Chairman of the Catholic Media Trust and also Chairman of the Bishops' Committee for Europe. He is member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in the Vatican. He is Chairman of the Bishops' Conference Department of Mission and Unity, Representative for the Bishops' Conference of the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland and a Member of IARCCUM (International Anglican Roman Catholic Committee for Unity and Mission).

Other Notables of Diocese

Vicars General

Rev Mgr Tom McGrath VG

Rev Mgr John Nelson VG

Rev Mgr Vincent Harvey

Moderator for the Curia

Rev Mgr John Nelson STL, JCL, VG

Episcopal Vicar for the Care and Formation of the Clergy

Rev Paul Townsend EpV

Episcopal Vicar for Religious

Rev Thomas Taaffe EpV

Chancellor for the Diocese

Rev Richard Hind

Pastoral Areas

Following a long period of consultation, the Diocese's new Pastoral Areas were launched at Pentecost 2006.

The new Pastoral Areas with their respective parishes are:

* Pompey: Portsmouth Cathedral – Corpus Christi with St Joseph – Our Lady & St Swithun – St Colman with St Paul
* Thames Isis: Abingdon – Didcot – East Hendred – North Hinksey – Wallingford
* West Berkshire: Newbury St Francis de Sales – Newbury St Joseph – Thatcham – Woolhampton
* Central and West Reading: English Martyrs – St James & St William – St Joseph

* Loddon Valley: Reading: Christ the King – Our Lady & Blessed Dominic Barberi – Twyford – Woodley

* Great Park: Ascot – Maidenhead St Edmund Campion – Maidenhead St Joseph – Windsor

* South Berkshire: Bracknell: St Joseph – Bracknell: St Margaret Clitherow – Crowthorne & Sandhurst – Wokingham
* North East Hampshire: Aldershot – Church Crookham – Farnborough Our Lady Help of Christians – Farnborough Our Lady & St Dominic – Fleet – Hartley Wintney – Yateley
* North West Hampshire: Andover & Whitchurch – Basingstoke Holy Ghost – Basingstoke St Joseph – Hook – Tadley – Whitchurch
* Alton-Petersfield: Alton – Bordon – Grayshott – Liphook – Petersfield

* Hampshire Downs: Hampshire Downs parish (Winchester)

* Three Rivers: Bishop’s Waltham – Chandlers Ford – Eastleigh – Romsey
* Havant: Havant – Hayling Island – Horndean – Leigh Park – Waterlooville
* North Downs: Buckland & Faringdon – Lambourn & Hungerford – Wantage

* Solent: Fareham & Portchester – Gosport – Lee-on-the-Solent with Stubbington – Park Gate

* Southampton East: Hedge End – Netley – Southampton: Christ the King & St Colman – Immaculate Conception – St Patrick
* Southampton Central and West: Holy Family – St Boniface – St Joseph & St Edmund – St Vincent de Paul

* New Forest East: Totton – Waterside

* New Forest: Brockenhurst – Lymington – Lyndhurst – Milford on Sea – New Milton
* Avon Stour: Bournemouth Our Lady Queen of Peace & Blessed Margaret Pole – St Thomas More – Christchurch – Fordingbridge – Highcliffe – Ringwood
* Bournemouth: Annunciation & St Edmund Campion – Corpus Christi – Our Lady Immaculate – Sacred Heart

* Catholic Wight: Cowes – East Cowes – Newport – Ryde – South Wight – Totland Bay
* Bailiwick of Guernsey: Alderney – Guernsey
* Jersey: East Jersey – St Helier – Our Lady of Fatima – West Jersey

=Pilgr

The Portsmouth Diocese makes up part of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage.

External links

* [http://www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk/ Official site of the Diocese]
* [http://www.catholic-hierarchy.org/diocese/dprts.html The Diocese of Portsmouth at the site www.catholic-hierarchy.org]
* [http://gosport.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk The Catholic Church in Gosport]
* [http://www.sacred-heart.org.uk/ The Catholic Church in Fareham & Portchester]
* [http://www.stmm.org.uk/ St Margaret Mary in Park Gate,]