| Diocese of Northampton | |
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| Province | Province of Westminster |
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| Bishop | Bishop of Northampton |
| Cathedral | Northampton Cathedral |
| Subdivisions | |
| Parishes | 68 |
| Membership | 173,539 |
| Website | http://www.northamptondiocese.org/ |
The Diocese of Northampton is one of the 22 Roman Catholic dioceses in England and Wales and a Latin Rite suffragan diocese of Westminster. Its see is in Northampton. The Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate & St Thomas of Canterbury is the mother church of the Diocese.
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The diocese covers the current counties of Bedfordshire, and Northamptonshire and the old county of Buckinghamshire, including the Slough area.
When St Augustine came from Rome in 597 he concentrated on the areas of Kent and Essex, but thirty years later the area that the Northampton Diocese covers finally received the Christian message, with the arrival of the missionary St Birinius and the foundation of his see at Dorchester-on-Thames in 636. Nevertheless the real evangelisation of the people who dwelt in the diocese was achieved through the labours and missionaries of the isle of Lindisfarne, off the Northumbrian coast. Notable amongst them was St Chad, whose see, established at Lichfield in 669, included the present diocese of Northampton.
From the time of the reformation until 1850, Catholic dioceses ceased to exist in Britain. However on the 29 September 1850 by Letters Apostolic, issued by Pope Pius IX, the English Hierarchy was restored, and the diocese of Northampton came into being. Its first bishop was William Wareing, previously Vicar Apostolic of the Midland Region.
On 13 March 1976, by decree Quod Ecumenicum, Pope Paul VI formed the Diocese of East Anglia for the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk by detaching these counties from the Diocese of Northampton.
The current Bishop of Northampton is Peter John Haworth Doyle, born on 3 May 1944 at Wilpshire, near Blackburn in Lancashire.
Bishop Patrick Leo McCartie is the bishop emeritus of Northampton, having retired on 29 Mar 2001 after serving the diocese for 11 years. He was succeeded by bishop Kevin John Patrick McDonald who went on to be appointed Archbishop of Southwark on 6 November 2003.
The estimated Catholic population of the diocese in 2004 was 173,539 while the total population in the diocesan territory was 2,000,769. The diocese covers a territory of 5,532 km² and has 68 parishes.
The Northampton Diocese makes up part of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage.
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