Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth

Catholic diocese in England

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth (Dioecesis Portus Magni)is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church that covers the Channel Islands as well as parts of England (Hampshire, the Isle of Wight and parts of Berkshire, Dorset and Oxfordshire). 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 Portsmouth, situated centrally within the Metropolitan Province of Southwark, extending as far as Abingdon in the North; and down to and including the Channel Islands in the South, and roughly from Liphook in the East to Andover in the West. The diocese adjoins the dioceses of Birmingham and Northampton to the North, the diocese of Arundel & Brighton to the East and the dioceses of Plymouth and Clifton to the West. It officially comprises the counties of Hampshire, Berkshire (south of the Thames), Oxfordshire (south of the Thames), Dorset (the Bournemouth area), the Isle of Wight and the Channel Islands. The area of the Diocese of Portsmouth is 6,339 km2 (2,447sq Miles) with a total population (2024) of 3.8M. Its estimated Catholic population (2024) is 235,000. There are 87 parishes in 24 Pastoral Areas (2024) and 115 priests and 40 Deacons in active ministry, plus 101 professed, non priest religious and 255 professed women religious. Education comprises 70 schools.

By a Papal Brief dated 19 May 1882, Pope Leo XIII created the Diocese of Portsmouth. It was formed out of the western portion of the Diocese of Southwark, as constituted at the re establishment of the hierarchy in 1850. The Southwark diocese had become too large for one bishop, extending as it did from London to Bournemouth and from the outskirts of Oxford to Dover and including the Channel Islands. The new diocese comprised the counties of Hampshire, the Isle of Wight, Berkshire, and the Channel Islands. It was thus almost co terminous with the limits of the (Anglican) Diocese of Winchester. The obvious place for the cathedral and curia of the new diocese was Winchester. The Ecclesiastical Titles Act forbade a Catholic diocese to have the same name as an Anglican see. It would appear that the original intention was to fix the see at Southampton, with St Joseph Church in Bugle Street as the pro cathedral. The construction of a large parish church in the centre of Portsmouth had begun, and it was decided to make it the future cathedral of the diocese. Bishop Vertue was succeeded by his vicar general John Cahill. During Cahill's tenure a number of religious orders established houses in the diocese. In 1901 Benedictines from Solesmes Abbey settled on the Isle of Wight. Benedictine nuns established St Cecilia's Abbey, Ryde. Benedictine monks from the monastery of St. Edmund's, in Douai, France, came to Upper Woolhampton and founded Douai Abbey in 1903 when the community left France as a result of anti clerical legislation.

John Vertue (1826–1900) was appointed the first bishop of the new diocese. He was consecrated by Cardinal Manning on 25 July 1882 and on 10 August of that year opened the Cathedral of St John the Evangelist at Portsmouth. When the new bishop took possession of his see, he had about seventy priests and forty missions. Bishop Egan's Episcopal Ordination took place at St John's Cathedral, Portsmouth, on Monday 24 September 2012, the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham. Egan was born on 14 November 1955 in Altrincham, a suburb of Manchester. After classical studies locally at St. Ambrose College and at King's College London, he completed training for the priesthood at Allen Hall, Westminster, and at the Venerable English College in Rome. On 4 August 1984, he was ordained to the priesthood for the Diocese of Shrewsbury. From 1984 to 1988, Egan served as parochial vicar at St. Anthony's, Woodehouse Park, Manchester. From 1988 to 1991, he served as an assistant chaplain at the University of Cambridge. From 1991 to 1994, he served as parish vicar and chaplain at Arrowe Park Hospital on the Wirral. From 1994 to 1995, he completed theological studies at Boston College in the United States, going on to serve, until 2007, as a professor of fundamental theology and dean of studies at Oscott College seminary in Birmingham. In 2007–2008, also in Boston he attended Lonergan post doctoral fellowship Studies. In 2008, Egan became parish priest of Our Lady and St Christopher's in Stockport. In 2010, he was named to his previous post as Vicar General of the Diocese of Shrewsbury.

Roger Francis Crispian Hollis, bishop emeritus of Portsmouth, was educated at Stonyhurst College and ordained on 11 July 1965. He was installed as bishop of Portsmouth on 27 January 1989. He had been chairman of the Catholic Media Trust and chairman of the Bishops' Committee for Europe. He is a member of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications in the Vatican. He is the chairman of the Bishops' Conference Department of Mission and Unity, representative for the Bishops' Conference of the Churches Together in Britain and Ireland, and a member of IARCCUM (International Anglican Roman Catholic Committee for Unity and Mission). He reached the standard retirement age of 75 in November 2011. On 11 July 2012, the acceptance of his resignation was announced in an official press release from the Vatican Information Service (VIS), an arm of the Holy See Press Office.

Until 2006 the diocese was organised into the deaneries of Portsmouth, Aldershot, Alton, Basingstoke, Bournemouth, Fareham, Havant, New Forest, Southampton, Winchester, North East Berks, South Berks, Kennet Valley, Vale of the White Horse, Reading, Isle of Wight, Guernsey and Jersey. Following a period of consultation, the deaneries were replaced with 24 new pastoral areas at Pentecost 2006, with the aim to eventually turn them into parishes in the future. Deaneries were re introduced in September 2014.

The Portsmouth Diocese is part of the Catholic Association Pilgrimage.