The Archbishop of Birmingham heads the Roman Catholic
Archdiocese of Birmingham
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham is one of the principal Latin-rite Catholic administrative divisions of England and Wales in the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church. The archdiocese covers an area of , encompassing Staffordshir ...
in England.
As such he is the
metropolitan archbishop of the
Province of Birmingham. The archdiocese covers an area of and spans of the counties of Oxfordshire, Staffordshire, West Midlands, Warwickshire and Worcestershire. The
see
See or SEE may refer to:
* Sight - seeing
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Music:
** ''See'' (album), studio album by rock band The Rascals
*** "See", song by The Rascals, on the album ''See''
** "See" (Tycho song), song by Tycho
* Television
* ...
in the
City of Birmingham where the archbishop's
seat
A seat is a place to sit. The term may encompass additional features, such as back, armrest, head restraint but also headquarters in a wider sense.
Types of seat
The following are examples of different kinds of seat:
* Armchair (furniture), ...
is located at the
Metropolitan Cathedral and Basilica of Saint Chad.
With the gradual abolition of the legal restrictions on the activities of Catholics in England and Wales in the early 19th century, Rome decided to proceed to bridge the gap of the centuries from Queen
Elizabeth I by instituting Catholic dioceses on the regular historical pattern. Thus Pope
Pius IX issued the Bull ''
Universalis Ecclesiae'' of 29 September 1850 by which thirteen new dioceses which did not formally claim any continuity with the pre-Elizabethan English dioceses were created. One of these was the diocese of Birmingham. This has its origins in the Vicariates Apostolic of England, of the Midland District and lastly of the Central District. The last
Vicar Apostolic of the Central District, from 28 July 1848, was Bishop
William Bernard Ullathorne, O.S.B., who on 29 September 1850 became the first bishop of Birmingham.
In the early period from 1850 the diocese was a suffragan of the Metropolitan See of Westminster, but a further development was the creation under
Pope Pius X
Pope Pius X ( it, Pio X; born Giuseppe Melchiorre Sarto; 2 June 1835 – 20 August 1914) was head of the Catholic Church from 4 August 1903 to his death in August 1914. Pius X is known for vigorously opposing modernist interpretations of C ...
, on 28 October 1911, of a new Province of Birmingham.
The current archbishop is
The Most Reverend Bernard Longley, who was
appointed the ninth archbishop of Birmingham on 1 October 2009 and installed at the Metropolitan Cathedral and Basilica of Saint Chad on 8 December 2009, the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception and one of the patronal feasts of the archdiocese, St Chad being the other.
List of bishops and archbishops
Bishop of Birmingham
Archbishop of Birmingham
See also
*
List of Roman Catholic dioceses in England and Wales
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Archbishop of Birmingham
*
Birmingham
Lists of English people
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Birmingham