Denomination Roman Catholic Area 1,600 km² | Parishes 195 Secular priests 251 | |
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Population- Total- Catholics (as of 2010)2,250,000289,470 (12.9%) Ecclesiastical province Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Liverpool | ||
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford is centred on the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England.
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The diocese was founded in 1850 as one of the first post-Reformation Catholic dioceses in Great Britain. Since 1911 it has formed part of the Province of Liverpool. Its current boundaries encompass Manchester and a large part of North West England, between the River Mersey and the River Ribble, as well as some parishes north of the Ribble and Todmorden in Calderdale, West Yorkshire. Stonyhurst College is also within the diocese. In 2005, the diocese included 207 churches and chapels.
History
The first post-Reformation Catholic chapel in Blackburn was opened in 1773, and that in Manchester in 1774 (in Rook Street, dedicated to St Chad). In 1843 the Rev. James Sharples, rector of St. Alban's, Blackburn, was consecrated Titular Bishop of Samaria and appointed coadjutor to Bishop Brown, the first Vicar Apostolic of the Lancashire District. He built at Salford St. John's Church, which was opened in 1848 and which subsequently became the cathedral for the diocese.
Dr. Sharples died on 16 August 1850 and the first Bishop of Salford in the restored hierarchy was the Most. Rev. William Turner (1790–1872). He was succeeded in 1872 by the Most. Rev. Herbert Vaughan (1832–1903). On his translation to Westminster in 1892, the Most. Rev. John Bilsborrow (1836–1903) was consecrated as the third bishop. The Most. Rev. Louis Charles Casartelli, D.D., M.A., Litt.D., the fourth bishop, was born in 1852, and ordained priest in 1876. He was closely associated with Cardinal Vaughan in the foundation of St. Bede's College, Manchester, in 1876, and was rector of it when he was nominated bishop in 1903. Bishop Casartelli was also a professor at the Catholic University of Leuven, and known as a writer on Oriental subjects.