Province Province of Southwark | Website Archbishop Peter Smith | |
 | ||
Diocese Archdiocese of Southwark Cathedral St George's Cathedral, Southwark First incumbent Thomas Grant
as Bishop of Southwark Formation Bishopric in 1850
Archbishopric in 1965 | ||
The Archbishop of Southwark (Br [ˈsʌðɨk]) is the Ordinary of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Southwark in England. As such he is the Metropolitan Archbishop of the Province of Southwark.
The archdiocese has an area of 3,000 km2 (1,200 sq mi) and covers the London Boroughs south of the Thames, the county of Kent and the Medway Unitary Authority. The Metropolitan See is in Southwark where the archbishop's seat is located at the Metropolitan Cathedral Church of Saint George.
The see is currently held by the Most Reverend Peter Smith, LL.B., J.C.D., 4th Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark, who was appointed by the Holy See on 30 April 2010 and installed at St George's Cathedral, Southwark on 10 June 2010.
History
The Diocese of Southwark was created on 29 September 1850 and originally covered the historic counties of Surrey, Berkshire, Hampshire, Kent, Sussex, the Isle of Wight, and the Channel Islands. It lost territory on the creation of the Diocese of Portsmouth on 19 May 1882. The diocese lost further territory on the creation of the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton on 28 May 1965. However, on the same day the diocese of Southwark was elevated to an archdiocese when the Ecclesiastical province of Southwark was established; from 1850 the diocese had been part of the Province of Westminster. The metropolitan archbishop of Southwark has jurisdiction over the bishops of Arundel & Brighton, of Plymouth, and of Portsmouth.