Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton is a diocese of the Latin Rite of the Roman Catholic Church in England. Its seat is the Cathedral Church of Saints Peter and Paul in Clifton.
The diocese covers the City and County of Bristol and the civil counties of Gloucestershire, Somerset, Wiltshire, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset, an area of 4,215 square miles. Practically the Diocese stretches from Stow in the Wold in the north to Minehead & Watchet in the South. The most westerly parishes are in the Forest of Dean, while Marlborough near Swindon is one of the most easterly parishes. The City of Bristol, of which Clifton is a suburb, is the largest centre of population within the Diocese. Swindon is the next biggest population centre. Other well known cities and towns in the diocese include Bath, Wells, Cheltenham, Gloucester, Salisbury, Taunton and Weston-super-Mare.
The Clifton Diocese makes up part of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage.
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[edit] Statistics
The Diocese has 107 Parishes, or the equivalent, in the Diocese. Many of the parishes have chapels-of-ease or other Mass centres attached adding a total of 99 chapels to the 107 parish churches. These parishes are run by a mixture of Diocesan priests and priests who belong to Religious Orders such as the Benedictines, Franciscans and others.
[edit] History
The English Reformation ended the Catholic hierarchy in England by the mid-16th century. In 1622 the Sacred Congregation for the Propagation of the Faith created an apostolic vicariate for the whole of England, which was divided into four districts in 1688. The Western District, comprising the whole of Wales and the present Dioceses of Plymouth and Clifton, was by far the poorest. The hierarchy was restored in 1850, and the Western District was created the Diocese of Clifton, with heretofore apostolic vicar William Joseph Hendren appointed the first Bishop.[1]
In 1830, in an attempt to ensure a supply of priests for the District, Bishop Peter Baines, the Vicar-Apostolic, had bought the Prior Park estate near Bath and had established there a school and a seminary, now Prior Park College. Although an academic success the College was a financial disaster. Bishop Hendren, resigned in 1851 realising his inability to do anything about the huge debts on the College. His successor, Bishop Thomas Burgess, died in 1854 without doing anything to solve the problem.
A Decree of the Sacred College promulgated on 22 December 1855, prevented the appointment of a new Bishop of Clifton until the problems of the College had been solved. Instead, an Administrator was appointed who would manage the affairs of the Diocese until a Bishop was appointed. He was Archbishop Errington, Co-Adjutor to Cardinal Wiseman the Archbishop of Westminster. He arrived at Prior Park at the end of October, 1855, but was not able to do anything to preserve the College. A Court Order was enforced against the College for non-payment of rent, and the contents of the College were sold by auction, and the premises vacated.
The problem of Prior Park having been settled, the new Bishop of Clifton was appointed. William Clifford, the second son of Lord Clifford of Chudleigh in Devon, was consecrated by Pope Pius IX on 15 February 1857, and enthroned at the Pro-cathedral on 17 March 1857. For the next 36 years he guided the Diocese to prosperity.
The Pro-cathedral had an unfortunate history. Work on the building started in 1834 but ceased the following year when the foundations failed. The half-finished building was abandoned in 1843 when a second attempt to reinforce the foundations again failed. Bishop William Ullathorne, Vicar-Apostolic from 1846-1848, had a roof placed on the half-finished building so that it could be used as a church, but Bishop Clifford, with the advice of the architect Charles Hansom, had it converted into a reasonable Pro-cathedral. He also re-purchased Prior Park and re-opened the school and the seminary, much of the expense being found by the Bishop's family. Bishop Clifford died in 1893. His successor, Bishop William Brownlow, was consecrated in 1894 and died in 1901.
Brownlow's successor, Bishop George Ambrose Burton, a priest of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, was Bishop of Clifton for the next 29 years. An outstanding scholar, he was an authority on ancient manuscripts and catalogued the documents which now form the basis of the Diocesan Archives. He saw the magnificent Benedictine Downside Abbey completed and he welcomed a second Benedictine community when the convert community from Caldey Island came to the Diocese to settle at Prinknash.
Bishop William Lee, who had been secretary to Bishop Burton, succeeded him in 1931. During his 16 years as Bishop, he founded 72 new parishes and Mass Centres. His successor, Bishop Joseph Rudderham, a priest of the Diocese of Northampton, was consecrated at Clifton on 26 July 1949. The financial demands made on the people of the Diocese to provide new schools to comply with the provisions of the 1944 Education Act resulted in expenditure of £332,000 between 1949 and 1960. In spite of these demands, the building of a new Cathedral was undertaken in 1968. On the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, 1973, in the presence of a vast gathering of religious and civic dignitaries, Bishop Rudderham took possession of the new Clifton Cathedral, which now graces the Bristol skyline.
Bishop Rudderham resigned his See in August 1974 and died in retirement in February 1979. His Auxiliary Bishop, Bishop Mervyn Alexander was appointed eighth Bishop of Clifton in December 1974 and guided the Diocese for the next 27 years. He then retired to Weston-super-Mare as parish priest at St Joseph's. In March 2001 Bishop Declan Lang was ordained as 9th Bishop of Clifton.
[edit] Current bishop
The Right Reverend Declan Lang was born on 15 April 1950 in Cowes on the Isle of Wight. He went to primary school at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Convent in Carisbrook, now St Thomas of Canterbury First School. From primary school he went to Ryde School where he remained until he was eighteen.
He attended Allen Hall, St Edmund's College, Ware to train for the priesthood in September 1968 and while he was there he also went to Royal Holloway College, University of London, where he earned a BA in History. He was ordained a priest on 7 June 1975 by Bishop Derek Worlock at the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist, Portsmouth. He was then appointed as an Assistant Priest at the Cathedral and Chaplain to St Edmund's Comprehensive School in Portsmouth.
Four years after ordination he was appointed as Secretary to Bishop Emery as well as Chancellor. During this time he worked on the Diocesan Youth Commission which he later chaired. For a number of years he went as a chaplain with the Portsmouth Group to Lourdes at Easter.
In 1983 he was appointed to the Religious Education Council as Adult Religious Education Advisor, a position he held until 1990. While doing this work he was also Parish Priest of Our Lady, Queen of Apostles, Bishop's Waltham, for four years and then Parish Priest at Sacred Heart, Bournemouth.
In January 1996 he was appointed as one of the Vicars General in the Diocese moving from Portsmouth to Abingdon in September 1996. He has also chaired a Working Party jointly sponsored by the Bishop's Conference and the National Conference of Priests looking at Clergy Appraisal. The Working Party Report was accepted by the Bishops Conference and since then he has spoken in a number of Dioceses about the reasons for and the benefits arising from Clergy Appraisal.
In March 2001 Bishop Declan Lang was ordained as the 9th Bishop of Clifton. Speaking of his appointment Mgr Lang said "I feel very privileged to have been appointed Bishop of Clifton and I ask your prayers as I undertake this new ministry in my life. I look forward to meeting all the people of the Diocese and for us to work together in proclaiming, living and celebrating the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I would like to thank Bishop Mervyn for his welcome and for the support he has already given me."
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Province of Westminster
Province of Birmingham
Province of Liverpool
Province of Southwark
Province of Cardiff
Other Dioceses
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