Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle Dioecesis Hagulstadensis et Novacastrensis |
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Location | |
Country | England |
Territory | The counties of Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, Durham including the part of north of the River Tees. |
Ecclesiastical province | Liverpool |
Metropolitan | Archdiocese of Liverpool |
Deaneries | 18 |
Statistics | |
Area | 8,438 km2 (3,258 sq mi) |
Population - Total - Catholics |
(as of 2013) 2,323,700 181,193 (7.8%) |
Parishes | 170 |
Information | |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Rite | Latin Rite |
Established | 29 September 1850 (As Hexham) 23 May 1861 (As Hexham and Newcastle) |
Cathedral | St Mary's Cathedral |
Secular priests | 194 |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Seamus Cunningham |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Malcolm McMahon |
Vicar General | Martin Stempczyk |
Episcopal Vicars |
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Map | |
The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle within the Province of Liverpool |
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Website | |
rcdhn.org.uk |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle is a Roman Catholic diocese of the Latin Rite centred on St Mary's Cathedral in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in England. The diocese is one of the six suffragan sees in the ecclesiastical Province of Liverpool and covers much of North-East England.
The Diocese of Hexham was revived in 1850 by decree of Pope Pius IX, restoring the Catholic hierarchy to England and Wales. Although the ancient See of Hexham was founded in 678 it had later lapsed. Together with the See of Lindisfarne, founded by Saint Aidan, Hexham formed the main part of the Northumbrian kingdom's ecclesiastical structure. Among the early bishops elected to the see in 684 was Saint Cuthbert, the present-day patron of the modern diocese and, later, Acca of Hexham.
The modern diocese was expanded to include the title of Newcastle in 1861. Originally under the metropolitan See of Westminster, the diocese became part of the new Province of Liverpool (often referred to as the Northern Province) in 1911.
On the restoration of the diocese in 1850, Pius IX appointed Bishop William Hogarth, Vicar Apostolic of the Northern District, to be the first bishop of the diocese. The Parish Church of Saint Mary, Newcastle upon Tyne, designed by Augustus Welby Pugin, was selected as the seat for the new bishop, gaining cathedral status.
In 1924, Pope Pius XI withdrew the old counties of Cumberland and Westmorland to incorporate them into a newly created Diocese of Lancaster. For this reason, the Lancaster diocese still considers St Cuthbert as one of its principal patrons. Other territory was taken from the Archdiocese of Liverpool to form the new see.