The diocese was erected in 1850; from then until 1911 it was in the ecclesiastical province of Westminster, and has been in the province of Birmingham since then.
Statistics
The Diocese has 104 Parishes, or the equivalent. Many have chapels-of-ease or other Mass centres, adding a total of 99 chapels. The parishes are run by a mixture of Diocesan priests, and priests who belong to Religious Orders such as the Benedictines, Franciscans and others.
Diocesan boundaries
In 2023, the diocese's 13 deaneries (originally six) were replaced by 9 pastoral areas, each led by a dean and named after a saint associated with the diocese.[2] These pastoral areas comprise the following parishes:[3]
St Edmund of Abingdon (Dean: Fr Eugene Campbell): Bishopston; Bristol City Centre; Downend; Easton; Filton; Fishponds; Henbury; Kingswood; Chipping Sodbury; Lawrence Weston; Patchway; Redfield; Shirehampton; Southmead; Westbury-on-Trym; Yate.
St Alexander Briant (Dean: Fr Matthew Anscombe): Chew Magna; Clevedon; Keynsham; Knowle; Knowle West; Nailsea; Portishead; Whitchurch; Withywood.
St Kenelm (Dean: Fr David Mills): Charlton Kings; Cheltenham St Gregory; Cheltenham St Thomas More; Chipping Campden; Cirencester; Fairford; Kemerton; Stow-on-the-Wold; Tewkesbury; Winchcombe.
The English Reformation suppressed 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 by Pope Pius IX, and the Western District was created the Diocese of Clifton, so-called because the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1851 (repealed 20 years later by the Ecclesiastical Titles Act 1871) made it illegal for Catholic dioceses to use the same title as current or former Anglican dioceses, despite the fact that the Diocese of Clifton had its Cathedral Church within the City of Bristol. The apostolic vicar William Joseph Hendren was appointed as the first bishop.[4]
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, a 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 to 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 BenedictineDownside Abbey completed, and he welcomed a second Benedictine community when the convert community from Caldey Island came to the diocese to settle at Prinknash Abbey.
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 Education Act 1944 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 current Clifton Cathedral.
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 the ninth Bishop of Clifton.
Bishops
Ordinaries
The ninth bishop was the Right Reverend Declan Lang, who was born on 15 April 1950 in Cowes, Isle of Wight. Ordained in 1975, he was a priest in the Diocese of Portsmouth, serving as vicar general from 1996. He was appointed the ninth Bishop of Clifton by Pope John Paul II on 27 February 2001. His resignation was confirmed by Pope Francis on 14 March 2024 on which date his successor as the tenth Bishop of Clifton was also confirmed as Bosco MacDonald.[5]
Vicars Apostolic of Western District
Michael Ellis, O.S.B. (1688–1705); later appointed Bishop of Segni, Italy
The Bishop of Clifton is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton in the Province of Birmingham, England.
The Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia is a Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church which covers south Wales and the county of Herefordshire in England. The Metropolitan Province of Cardiff covers all of Wales and parts of England. Cardiff's one suffragan diocese is the Diocese of Wrexham.
The Apostolic Vicariate of the Western 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 Western District was created in 1688 and was dissolved in 1850 and replaced by two dioceses.
The Diocese of Down and Connor, is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Northern Ireland. It is one of eight suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Armagh. Bishop Alan McGuckian is Bishop.
The Roman CatholicDiocese of Portsmouth is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church that covers the Channel Islands as well as parts of England. The episcopal see is St John's Cathedral in Portsmouth and is headed by the Bishop of Portsmouth. The diocese is part of the metropolitan Province of Southwark, which covers all of the far South of England as well as the Channel Islands.
The Diocese of Menevia was a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Wales. It was one of two suffragan dioceses in the ecclesiastical province of Cardiff and was subject to the Archdiocese of Cardiff, until it merged with the Archdiocese in 2024, to form the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Cardiff-Menevia.
The Diocese of Nottingham is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic church in England and a suffragan of the Metropolitan Diocese of Westminster.
The Diocese of Northampton is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic church in England and Wales and suffragan of Westminster. Its see is in Northampton. The Cathedral of Our Lady Immaculate and St Thomas of Canterbury is the mother church of the Diocese.
The Roman Catholic Metropolitan Archdiocese of Colombo is a Latin metropolitan archdiocese of the Roman Catholic Church, whose ecclesiastical province covers all Sri Lanka plus the Maldives. It depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kuching is a Metropolitan Latin archbishopric of the Roman Catholic Church in Sarawak, Malaysia. It is however remains dependent on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The Pro-Cathedral of the Holy Apostles was the Roman Catholic cathedral in the city of Bristol, England from 1850 to 1973. The Pro-Cathedral was replaced in 1973 by the Cathedral Church of SS. Peter and Paul, also known as Clifton Cathedral. It is a Grade II Listed Building.
John Dalton, O.F.M. Rec., was an Irish-born Friar Minor who served as the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Harbour Grace, Newfoundland, from 1856 to 1869.
The Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church, centred on St Mary's Cathedral in the city of Newcastle upon Tyne in England. The diocese is one of the six suffragan sees in the ecclesiastical Province of Liverpool and covers the historic boundaries of County Durham and Northumberland.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Kandy is a suffragan diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archbishopric of Colombo, but depends on the missionary Roman Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Faisalabad is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in Pakistan.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Hyderabad is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Roman Catholic Church in Pakistan.
Mervyn Alban Alexander was the Bishop of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Clifton from 1974 to 2001.
Thomas Joseph BrownOSB was a bishop of the Roman Catholic Church. He served for two ecclesiastical jurisdictions, first as the Vicar Apostolic of the Welsh District from 1840 to 1850, then as Bishop of Newport and Menevia from 1850 to 1880.
Joseph William Hendren OFM (1791–1866) was an English Roman Catholic bishop. He served three ecclesiastical jurisdictions, first as the Vicar Apostolic of the Western District (1848–1850), then Bishop of Clifton (1850–1851), and finally Bishop of Nottingham (1851–1853).
Joseph Edward Rudderham was an English prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Clifton from 1949 to 1974.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
England 
