Archbishop of Birmingham

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The Archbishop of Birmingham heads the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham in England. As such he is the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Birmingham.

The archdiocese covers an area of 8,735 km² of the Counties of Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. The Archbishop's see in the City of Birmingham where his cathedra or seat is located at the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Saint Chad.

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.

One of these was the diocese of Birmingham. This has its origins in the Vicariates Apostolic of England, of the Midland District and lastly of the Central District. The last Vicar Apostolic of the Central District, from 28 July 1848, was Bishop William Bernard Ullathorne, O.S.B., who on 29 September 1850 became the first Bishop of Birmingham.

In the early period from 1850 the diocese was a suffragan of the Metropolitan See of Westminster, but a further development was the creation under Pope Pius X, on 28 October 1911, of a new Province of Birmingham.

The current archbishop is His Grace the Most Reverend Vincent Gerard Nichols, MA, MEd, STL, the 9th Bishop and 8th Metropolitan Archbishop of Birmingham, who was installed on 29 March 2000.

[edit] List of the Archbishops of the Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham, England

(Any dates appearing in italics indicate de facto continuation of office. The start date of tenure below is the date of appointment or succession. Where known, the date of installation and ordination as bishop are listed in the notes together with the post held prior to appointment.)

Tenure	Incumbent	Notes
29 September 1850 to 27 April 1888	William Bernard Ullathorne, OSB, Bishop of Birmingham	Vicar Apostolic of the Central District; retired
17 February 1888 to 27 November 1911	Edward Ilsley, Bishop of Birmingham	Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham; becoming Archbishop
27 November 1911 to 13 June 1921	Edward Ilsley, Archbishop of Birmingham	Hitherto Bishop; retired
16 June 1921 to 17 November 1928	John McIntyre, Archbishop of Birmingham	Auxiliary Bishop of Birmingham; resigned
23 June 1929 to 1 April 1946	Thomas Leighton Williams, Archbishop of Birmingham	Priest; ordained 25 July 1929; died in office
8 February 1947 to 30 November 1953	Joseph Masterson, Archbishop of Birmingham	Priest; ordained 19 March 1947; died in office
11 May 1954 to 22 March 1965	Francis Joseph Grimshaw, Archbishop of Birmingham	Bishop of Plymouth; died in office
5 October 1965 to 1 September 1981	George Patrick Dwyer, Archbishop of Birmingham	Bishop of Leeds; retired
22 January 1982 to 12 June 1999	Maurice Noël Léon Couve de Murville, Metropolitan Archbishop of Birmingham	Priest of Arundel and Brighton; resigned
15 February 2000 to present	Vincent Gerard Nichols, MA, MEd, STL, Metropolitan Archbishop of Birmingham	Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster; installed 29 March 2000


Catholic Hierarchy in England and Wales
Archbishops	Bishops
England
Liverpool	Hallam \| Hexham and Newcastle \| Lancaster \| Leeds \| Middlesbrough \| Salford
Westminster	Brentwood \| East Anglia \| Northampton \| Nottingham
Birmingham	Clifton \| Shrewsbury
Southwark	Arundel & Brighton \| Plymouth \| Portsmouth
Other dioceses	Bishopric of the Forces \| Apostolic Exarchate for Ukrainians
Wales
Cardiff	Menevia \| Wrexham
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