Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle

Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle
Bishopric
catholic
Incumbent: Séamus Cunningham
Province	Liverpool
Diocese	Hexham and Newcastle
Cathedral	St Mary's Cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne
First incumbent	William Hogarth
Formation	29 September 1850, name changed 23 May 1861

The Bishop of Hexham and Newcastle is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle in the Province of Liverpool, known also on occasion as the Northern Province.

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. The Vicariate Apostolic of the Northern District was duly elevated to diocese status as the Diocese of Hexham.

On 23 May 1861 the diocese became the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. In the early period from 1850 the diocese was a suffragan of the Metropolitan See of Westminster, but under Pope Pius X, on 28 October 1911, it was assigned to the newly created Province of Liverpool.

The present diocese covers an area of 7,700 km² of the counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, and Durham. The see is in the City of Newcastle upon Tyne where the seat is located at the Cathedral Church of Saint Mary, which was consecrated on 21 August 1860.

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Wikipedia