Catholic Archbishops

[RDP]

Does the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales appoint Archbishops? I know they have bishops and one cardinal, but do they have archbishops as well? If so, for which regions?? Thanks.

[Octavius]

Yes. There are 22 dioceses in England and Wales each run by a Bishop. These are divided into 5 provinces, each run by an Archbishop:

Patrick Kelly � Liverpool
Kevin McDonald � Southwark
Cormac Murphy O�Connor � Westminster
Vincent Nichols � Birmingham
Peter Smith � Cardiff

Cormac is actually a Cardinal and is therefore the toppest RC geezer in the UK & Wales. This list does not include Scotland of course.

[Peter Pedant]

for a social comment on the hx of RC bishops read the ecclesiastical novels of Anthony Trollope

It comes up in either book 1 or book 2. Septimus Quiver has to go to london to ask the attorney general about the legality of his appointment but the fella is delayed. He is delayed by the 500 clauses of the ecclesiastical causes bill which gives powers to sages femmes to enter houses and search for Romish ornaments.

This may satirise the situration where the RC was being demonised and there were rumours that young girls were imprisoned in convents and perhaps forced to convert !


In fact the Romans reconstitued bishoprics around 1867 and were very careful not to use old names. Nonetheless the proddies thought that they would then claim their old privileges such as seats in the House of Lords and so The Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1868 was rushed through parliament which expressly enacted that the new RC bsihops would have no status or force in England under any circs.

Dja remember your history books. We had one with pictures and there is one with a punch cartoon of Pius IX enthroned. His Italian name was Pio nono (erm Pius Ninth in Italian), and the caption under the cartoon is
Pio ! No ! No !
Damned good huh ? Anyway it shows the strength of feeling whcih you can recreate by reading Trollope