Diocese of Northampton

Diocese of Northampton Dioecesis Northantoniensis
Coat of arms of the Bishop Peter John Haworth Doyle
Location
Country	England
Territory	The shires of Bedford, Buckingham, and Northampton, and that part of Berkshire (formerly in Buckinghamshire) that lies to the north of the River Thames.
Ecclesiastical province	Westminster
Metropolitan	Westminster
Statistics
Area	3,419 km2 (1,320 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2013) 2,089,307 182,500 (8.7%)
Parishes	70
Information
Denomination	Roman Catholic
Rite	Latin Rite
Established	29 September 1850
Cathedral	Northampton Cathedral
Secular priests	92
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	Peter John Haworth Doyle
Metropolitan Archbishop	Vincent Nichols
Vicar General	Provost Séan Healy
Emeritus Bishops	Patrick Leo McCartie
Map
Diocese of Northampton within the Province of Westminster
Website
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 and St Thomas of Canterbury is the mother church of the Diocese.

The diocese now covers the counties of Bedfordshire, Northamptonshire and Buckinghamshire under its pre-1974 historic boundaries. Until 1976, the counties of Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk were included; they now form the Diocese of East Anglia.

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.