England Catholic Church Archdioceses and Dioceses (National Institute)

Catholic Missions and Parishes
The Catholic church was organized from about 1700 in local missions, not parishes, with the priest being known as the missionary apostolic. Until after 1791 there were no public chapels and just a few legal private ones in embassies, officially to serve the diplomatic community. Gandy ( Catholic Missions and Registers, 1994) has published six indispensable handlists of Catholic missions and surviving registers 1700-1880 for England, Wales and Scotland. The Catholic Directory also lists them and gives the dates of foundation.

The English Catholic system of Dioceses and Archdioceses was set up in 1850 and, with the modifications that have occurred with time in 1960 stood as in the chart below. Catholics chose their own chapel to attend since there were no official Catholic parish boundaries until the parish system was set up after WWI. Gandy’s Atlas (Catholic Parishes in England, Wales and Scotland. An Atlas. Self-published, 2001-3) contains maps showing all parishes having regular Sunday mass in 1960.

Although it was illegal for most residents of England to be Catholic between 1581 and 1778 there were some Londoners who were exempt from these laws. The 17th century Queens of England were all Catholic and their right to freedom of worship was written into their marriage contracts. There was therefore always a Royal Catholic chapel, firstly in St. James’ Palace, and later in Somerset House. The other group were the diplomats associated with the London embassies from European Catholic countries. The embassies each had their private chapels which were allowed open services with music and ceremonies to serve their large staffs since they were technically on foreign soil. They attracted many other Catholics, as evidenced by the registers which mostly record English and Irish people both from the city and in from the country, not foreign nationals.

Chart: English Catholic Dioceses and Archdioceses (denoted by *) [Abstracted from Gandy 2001-3]

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