Part of a series on the |
Catholic Church by country |
---|
Catholicismportal |
The Catholic Church in the United Kingdom is organised into the Catholic churches in England and Wales, Scotland, and with Northern Ireland organised as part of the Catholic Church in Ireland. All as part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope. While there is no ecclesiastical jurisdiction corresponding to the United Kingdom as a whole, this article refers to the Catholic Church's geographical representation in Great Britain and Northern Ireland, ever since the establishment of the Kingdom of Great Britain by the Acts of Union 1707, and later the United Kingdom.
Starting with Pope Pius V's papal bull Regnans in Excelsis in 1570 and lasting until 1766, popes did not recognise the legitimacy of the English monarchy and called for its overthrow. The Crown and government responded by treating Catholics as suspect. By the time of the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain in 1707, Catholics were discriminated against in England and Scotland in significant ways: in all the kingdoms of the British Isles, they were excluded from voting, from sitting in Parliament, and from the learned professions. These discriminatory laws continued after the Acts of Union 1800, which created the new United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland in 1801. At that time, Catholic emancipation was gathering support but was not yet a reality, particularly in Ireland, where the Protestant Ascendancy was still in full force.[ citation needed ]
The Treaty of Union of 1707, like the Act of Settlement, had stated that no "Papist" could succeed to the throne. [1] Restrictions on the civil rights of Catholics only began to change with the passing of the Papists Act 1778, which allowed them to own property, inherit land and join the British Army, although even this measure resulted in the backlash of the Gordon Riots of 1780, showing the depth of continuing anti-Catholic feeling.[ citation needed ]
After 1790, a new mood emerged as thousands of Catholics fled the French Revolution and Britain was allied in the Napoleonic Wars with the Catholic states of Portugal and Spain as well as with the Holy See itself. By 1829, the political climate had changed enough to allow Parliament to pass the Roman Catholic Relief Act 1829, giving Catholics almost equal civil rights, including the right to vote and to hold most public offices.
The Catholic Church in England included about 50,000 people in traditional ("recusant") Catholic families. They generally kept a low profile. Their priests usually came from St Edmund's College, a seminary founded in 1793 by English refugees from the French revolution. The main disabilities, as referenced above, were lifted by the Catholic Relief Act of 1829. In 1850 the pope restored the Catholic hierarchy, giving England its own Catholic bishops again. In 1869 a new seminary opened. [2]
Another, larger group comprised very poor Irish immigrants escaping the Great Irish Famine. Their numbers rose from 224,000 in 1841 to 419,000 in 1851, concentrated in ports and industrial districts as well as industrial districts in Scotland. A third group included well-known converts from the Church of England, most notably the intellectuals John Henry Newman and Henry Edward Manning (1808–1892). Manning became the second Archbishop of Westminster. The next most prominent leader was Herbert Vaughan (1832–1903), who succeeded Manning as Archbishop of Westminster in 1892 and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1893. [3]
Manning was among the strongest supporters of the pope and especially of the doctrine of papal infallibility. In contrast Cardinal Newman acknowledged this doctrine but thought it might not be prudent to define it formally at the time. Manning promoted a modern Catholic view of social justice. These views are reflected in the papal encyclical Rerum novarum issued by Pope Leo XIII, which became the foundation of modern Catholic social justice teaching. Catholic parochial schools, subsidised by the government, were set up in urban areas to serve the largely Irish element. Manning spoke for the Irish Catholic labourers and helped settle the London dock strike of 1889. [4] He gained acclaim for building a new cathedral in Westminster and for encouraging the growth of religious congregations largely filled by the Irish.
A number of prominent individuals have converted to the Catholic Church, including St Edmund Campion, St Margaret Clitherow, King Charles II, King James II and VII, St John Henry Cardinal Newman, Henry Edward Cardinal Manning, Monsignor Robert Hugh Benson, Augustus Pugin, Evelyn Waugh, Muriel Spark, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Siegfried Sassoon, G. K. Chesterton, Ronald Knox, Graham Greene, Malcolm Muggeridge, Kenneth Clark, and Joseph Pearce. Members of the royal family such as Katharine, Duchess of Kent and former Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair have also converted to the Catholic Church, in Blair's case in December 2007 after he had left office. [5] [6] [7] [8]
Since the establishment of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham, over 3,000 former Anglicans have been received into the Catholic Church by this path.
There are 38 ecclesiastical circumscriptions and 3,104 parishes.[ citation needed ]
In 2011, in total there were roughly 5.7 million Catholics (9.1%) in the United Kingdom: 4,155,100 in England and Wales (7.4%), [9] 841,053 in Scotland (15.9%), [10] [11] and 738,033 in Northern Ireland (40.76%). [12]
In large parts of Northern Ireland, Catholicism is the dominant religion. Also in a few Scottish council areas Catholics outnumber other religions, including in the most populous one: Catholics outnumber members of the Church of Scotland in Glasgow City (27% versus 23%). Other council areas in which Catholics outnumber members of the Church of Scotland are North Lanarkshire, Inverclyde, and West Dunbartonshire, according to the 2011 Scottish Census. [13]
In 2011 according to a YouGov poll, 70% of British Catholics believed a woman should be able to have an abortion. Some 90% of Catholic worshippers supported contraceptives being widely available. [14] According to a 2015 YouGov poll, 50% of religious British Catholics supported same-sex marriage and 40% opposed it. [15] According to a Pew Research Center poll 78% of UK Catholics support same-sex marriage while 21% oppose it. The same poll maintains that 86% of UK Catholics believe society should accept homosexuality, while 12% believe society should not accept homosexuality. [16]
Saints and Doctors of the Church, notable and Pre-Reformation:
Saints from the period of the Reformation to the present:
Blesseds
Venerables
Servants of God
The Catholic Church in Sweden is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in communion with the Pope in Rome. It was established by Archbishop Ansgar in Birka in 829, and further developed by the Christianization of Sweden in the 9th century. King Olof Skötkonung is considered the first Christian king of Sweden.
The Forty Martyrs of England and Wales or Cuthbert Mayne and Thirty-Nine Companion Martyrs are a group of Catholic, lay and religious, men and women, executed between 1535 and 1679 for treason and related offences under various laws enacted by Parliament during the English Reformation. The individuals listed range from Carthusian monks who in 1535 declined to accept Henry VIII's Act of Supremacy, to seminary priests who were caught up in the alleged Popish Plot against Charles II in 1679. Many were sentenced to death at show trials, or with no trial at all.
The Apostolic Vicariate of the London District was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by a vicar apostolic who was a titular bishop. The apostolic vicariate was created in 1688 and was dissolved in 1850, when its former area was replaced by the episcopal sees of Westminster and Southwark.
The Apostolic Vicariate of the Midland District was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by an apostolic vicar who was a titular bishop. The Apostolic Vicariate of the Midland District was created in 1688 and changed its name to the Central District in 1840. It was dissolved in 1850 and was replaced by two dioceses.
The Apostolic Vicariate of the Northern District was an ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales. It was led by a vicar apostolic who was a titular bishop. The Apostolic Vicariate of the Northern District was created in 1688 and dissolved in 1850 and was replaced by the Diocese of Hexham, which changed to the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle in 1861.
The Catholic Church in Iceland is part of the Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope. The island is served by a single diocese, the Diocese of Reykjavík, having a total of seven parishes. As of 2015, the ordinary is bishop Dávid Bartimej Tencer. The diocese is directly subject to the Holy See.
The Catholic Church in England and Wales is part of the worldwide Catholic Church in full communion with the Holy See. Its origins date from the 6th century, when Pope Gregory I through a Roman missionary and Benedictine monk, Augustine, later Augustine of Canterbury, intensified the evangelization of the Kingdom of Kent, linking it to the Holy See in 597 AD.
The Bishopric of the Forces is a Latin Church military ordinariate of the Catholic Church which provides chaplains to the British Armed Forces based in the United Kingdom and their overseas postings.
The re-establishment of the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Scotland took effect on 15 March 1878. This followed the restoration of the English hierarchy in 1850.