Archdiocese of Glasgow
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The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Glasgow is an ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland, United Kingdom.
The Archdiocese is led by the Archbishop of Glasgow, currently Mario Joseph Conti.
The Archdiocese of Glasgow consists of 100 parishes in the West of Scotland, and includes the city of Glasgow, and the towns of Dumbarton in the west and Cumbernauld in the east. The Archdiocese extends northwards to Bearsden and Milngavie and westwards to Balloch and Garelochhead.
[edit] History
The diocese of Glasgow became important in the 12th century. It was organized by King David I of Scotland and John, Bishop of Glasgow. There had been an earlier religious site the exact age of which is unknown. According to doubtful hagiographical tradition, this ecclesiatical site had been established by Saint Kentigern. The bishopric became one of the largest and wealthiest in the Kingdom of Scotland, bringing wealth and status to the town. Somewhere between 1175 and 1178 this position was strengthened even further when Bishop Jocelin obtained for the episcopal settlement the status of burgh from King William the Lion, allowing the settlement to expand with the benefits of trading monopolies and other legal guarantees. Sometime between 1189 and 1195 this status was supplemented by an annual fair, which survives to this day as the Glasgow Fair.
In 1560, when the Catholic Faith was abolished by act of the Parliament of Scotland. Nearly all these bishops of Glasgow took an active share in the government of the country, whether as chancellors or treasurers of the kingdom or as members of regency during the minority of a sovereign. Robert Wishart (consecrated 1272, d. 1316) was conspicuous for his patriotism during the Scottish War of Independence from England, and was the close friend of William Wallace and Robert Bruce. William Turnbull (consecrated 1447, d. 1454) obtained in 1450 from Pope Nicholas V the charter of foundation for the University of Glasgow. On 9 January, 1492, Pope Innocent VIII raised the see to metropolitan rank, attaching to it the suffragan dioceses of Argyle, Dunblane, Dunkeld, and Galloway. James Beaton, nephew of the celebrated cardinal of the same surname, was the fourth and last archbishop of the old hierarchy. In 1560, eight years after his nomination, he was forced to retire to France, where he acted as confidential agent of Mary Queen of Scots, and later openly as ambassador for James VI, till his death in Paris, 25 April, 1603. He carried away with him the diocesan records, two of which deserve special mention: (1) "Registrumn Vetus Ecclesiae Cathedralis Glasguensis", in handwriting of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and (2) "Liber Ruber Ecclesiae Glasguensis", with entries from about 1400 to 1476. These, along with other records, were in 1843 printed in a volume for the Maitland Club under the title: "Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis: Munimenta Ecclesiae Metropolitanae Glasguensis a sede restauratâ saeculo ineunte XII ad reformatam religionem". A more splendid memorial of those times still remains in the old cathedral of St. Mungo, which was begun by Bishop Jocelyn (consecrated 1175, d. 1199) and received its last additions from Archbishop Blackader (consecr. 1484, d. 1508).
Glasgow did not again become a centre of Catholic life till about the beginning of the nineteenth century. The great industrial development which then began drew to the city and its neighbourhood Catholics from the Scottish Highlands and later, in far greater numbers, from Ireland. In 1828 the Holy See erected the Western District or Vicariate of Scotland, and the first vicar Apostolic to reside in Glasgow was Andrew Scott, Bishop of Eretria (b. 1772, d, 1846). He was succeeded by John Murdoch, Bishop of Castabala (b. 1796, d. 1865) and John Gray, Bishop of Hypsopolis (b. 1817, d. 1872). On the resignation of Bishop Gray in 1869 Charles Petre Eyre (b. 1817, d. 1902) was consecrated Archbishop of Anazarba and appointed administrator Apostolic. On the restoration of the Scottish hierarchy by Pope Leo XIII, 4 March, 1878, the Archbishopric of Glasgow was re-established, and Archbishop Eyre was transferred to the restored see.
By 1877, a year prior to the restoration of the Hierarchy, Archbishop Charles Eyre could record that in Glasgow city there were nineteen parishes, served by fifty-two priests, and in the county of Dunbarton, five parishes and seven priests.
Lanarkshire, which became Motherwell diocese in 1947-48, had seventeen parishes and twenty-two priests, while Renfrewshire, which became Paisley diocese in 1947-48, had eleven parishes and sixteen priests.
In 1888, Celtic Football Club was established as a means of raising money to fund 'the Poor Children's Dinner Tables' of the East End parishes of Saint Mary's, Calton, Sacred Heart, and St.Michael's.
To train clergy, Archbishop Eyre founded St.Peter's College at Partickhill in 1874, and also encouraged the opening at Dowanhill in 1894 of Notre Dame teacher-training college. He was also committed to creating new parishes and breaking up over-large ones which he felt 'were almost dioceses in themselves'.
During the episcopate of his successor, Archbishop John Maguire, the Education (Scotland) Act 1918 was passed. Financial difficulties, including the triple burden of salaries, building costs, and rising educational expectations necessitated a settlement.
Maguire also firmly supported the War effort of 1914-18. In 1917, soldier-students went to the Front from St.Peter's College, and two of the military chaplains from the Archdiocese were killed. Although the seminary never closed during the First World War, at one point it housed only a single student and the rector.
