Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen
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Diocese of Aberdeen Dioecesis Aberdonensis |
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Coat of Arms of the Diocese of Aberdeen
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| Location | |
| Country | Scotland |
| Territory | City of Aberdeen and the council areas of Aberdeenshire, Moray, central and northern part of Highland, and the islands of Orkney and Shetland |
| Ecclesiastical province | St Andrews and Edinburgh |
| Metropolitan | Archdiocese of St Andrews and Edinburgh |
| Coordinates | 57°08′17″N 2°08′35″W / 57.138°N 2.143°WCoordinates: 57°08′17″N 2°08′35″W / 57.138°N 2.143°W |
| Statistics | |
| Area | 29,068 km2 (11,223 sq mi) |
| Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2012) 728,000 18,500 (2.5%) |
| Parishes | 43 |
| Information | |
| Denomination | Roman Catholic |
| Rite | Latin Rite |
| Established | 4 March 1878 |
| Cathedral | St Mary's Cathedral, Aberdeen |
| Secular priests | 31 |
| Current leadership | |
| Pope | Francis |
| Bishop | Hugh Gilbert |
| Metropolitan Archbishop | Leo Cushley |
| Vicar General | Stuart Chalmers |
| Emeritus Bishops | Peter Moran |
| Website | |
| www.dioceseofaberdeen.org | |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Aberdeen (Latin: Dioecesis Aberdonensis) is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland.
The see is the successor of that founded in 1012 at Mortlach by Beyn, which was moved to Aberdeen, by Bishop Nechtan of Aberdeen in April 1132, during the reign of King David I of Scotland. The earliest mention of the see as that of Aberdeen is in the charter of the foundation, by the Earl of Buchan, of the Church of Deer (c. 1152), which is witnessed by Nectan, Bishop of Aberdeen. The first ecclesiastical record of the see is in a papal bull of Pope Adrian IV (1157), confirming to Bishop Edward the churches of Aberdeen and Saint Machar, with the town of Old Aberdeen and other lands.
The granite cathedral was built between 1272 and 1277. Bishop Thomas Spence founded a Franciscan house in 1480, and King's College was founded at Old Aberdeen by Bishop Elphinstone, for eight prebendaries, chapter, sacristan, organist, and six choristers, in 1505. The see was transferred to Old Aberdeen about 1125, and continued there until 1577, having had in that time a list of twenty-nine bishops.
The Scottish Church officially broke allegiance with the Roman church in 1560, but continued intermittently having bishops until 1689. On 4 March 1878, Pope Leo XIII restored the hierarchy of Scotland by the Bull Ex supremo Apostolatus apice and Vicar-Apostolic John MacDonald was translated to the restored See of Aberdeen as its first bishop.
The Bull made Aberdeen one of the four suffragan sees of the Archdiocese of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, and defined as its territory "the counties of Aberdeen, Kincardine, Banff, Elgin or Moray, Nairn, Ross (except Lewis in the Hebrides), Cromarty, Sutherland, Caithness, the Orkney and Shetland Islands, and that portion of Inverness which lies to the north of a straight line drawn from the most northerly point of Loch Luing to the eastern boundary of the said county of Inverness, where the counties of Aberdeen and Banff join."
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