Northampton Diocese

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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Northampton is one of the 22 Catholic dioceses in England and Wales and a 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.

1 Location
2 History
3 Bishops
4 Statistics
5 Pilgrimage
6 External links

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 on 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, Roman Catholic Dioceses ceased to exist in Britain. However on the 29th September 1850 by Letters Apostolic, issued by Pope Pius IX, the English Hierarchy was restored, and the diocese of Northampton came into being.

On 13th March 1976, by decree Quod Ecumenicum, Pope Paul VI formed the Diocese of East Anglia for the counties of Cambridge, Norfolk and Suffolk by detaching these counties from the Diocese of Northampton.

The current Bishop of Northampton is Peter John Haworth Doyle, born on 3rd May 1944 at Wilpshire, near Blackburn in Lancashire. The eldest son of John and Alice Doyle, he has two brothers, Christopher and John, and one sister, Alison. His mother died in 1976. His father remarried in 1978 and he and Peter's stepmother, Catherine, now live in Southsea.

The family moved to Essex in 1951, and Bishop Peter was educated by the Jesuits at St. Ignatius Prep School, Buckhurst Hill and at St. Ignatius College, Stamford Hill. Having won a scholarship to Sandhurst he was due to go there after his "A" levels and then onto the Royal Artillery. However, in his final year at school, he decided to offer himself for the priesthood. By then the family had moved to Hampshire where his father had been appointed to his fourth headship at the new All Hallows School in Famham. Bishop Peter decided to approach the Diocese of Portsmouth. Archbishop John Henry King accepted him as a student for the priesthood, and he was sent to Allen Hall then at Ware in Hertfordshire.

The Bishop was ordained priest by Bishop Derek Worlock in St. John's Cathedral, Portsmouth on 8th June 1968. At that time Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor was secretary to Bishop Worlock. Thereafter, Bishop Peter worked in parishes in the Diocese of Portsmouth - assistant priest at St. Joseph's, Copnor 1968-70, assistant priest at St. Edward's, Windsor 1970-75, administrator at St. John's Cathedral, Portsmouth 1975-87, parish priest at St. Joseph's, Maidenhead 1987-91, and parish priest at St. Peter's, Winchester 1991-2005 and also at St. Gregory's, Alresford from 2004. He was a member of the Council of Priests, a Consultor and a member of the Cathedral Chapter and from 2001 a member of the Bishop's Council and a Vicar General. He was also Dean of Portsmouth and of Winchester, chaired various school Governing bodies, and was Chairman of the Diocesan Schools Commission and the Diocesan Religious Education Council. In the autumn of 2003 he was the Diocesan Administrator while Bishop Crispian Hollis was on sabbatical.

In Winchester Bishop Peter had been looking forward to the challenge of being the one resident priest there and to the developments flowing from the Portsmouth Diocesan Pastoral Assembly which took place in July 2005. Over the years there had been a commitment to justice and peace with the Parish Covenant with the Poor. There were good relationships with Winchester Cathedral and with the other Christian communities in the city. Just before his appointment as Bishop of Northampton, Bishop Peter took on the role of chairman of Churches Together in Winchester. He had also just completed a year as chaplain to the City's Catholic mayor, and was chaplain to the High Sheriff of Hampshire.

From 1994 he was a member of the Old Brotherhood of the English Secular Clergy from which he had to resign on his appointment as Bishop.

To relax the Bishop says that he plays golf "badly" with his fellow clergy. He always comes last in the Clergy Golf competitions! He played squash until recently and he goes skiing once a year usually to Wengen. In earlier days he played rugby for Windsor and Portsmouth as a prop forward. He now enjoys watching rugby and plans to attend a number of local matches in Northampton where appropriately enough the Saints have their home.

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 Nov 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.

Catholic Dioceses in England and Wales