Ecclesiastical province Province of Brisbane Parishes 35 Area 487,456 km² Emeritus bishop Bill Morris | Metropolitan Brisbane Denomination Roman Catholic Patron saint Mary Secular priests 50 | |
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Population- Total- Catholics (as of 2004) 232,900 65,912 ( 28.3%%) Cathedral St Patrick's Cathedral, Toowoomba | ||
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Toowoomba is a Latin Rite suffragan diocese of the Archdiocese of Brisbane, established in 1929, covering the Darling Downs and south west regions of Queensland, Australia.
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St Patrick's Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Bishop of Toowoomba. The diocese covers an area of 487,000 km2. with 48 priests and 57 members of religious orders. There are 77,400 Catholics among the 276,700 total population within the diocese's borders.
History
In 1929, the Diocese of Toowoomba was excised from the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.
Recent history
Bishop Bill Morris was appointed in 1992 to head the Toowoomba diocese. In 2006 he released a pastoral letter calling for discussion of the ordination of married men and the ordination of women to compensate for the lack of priests in his large diocese.
An apostolic visitation of the diocese was conducted by Charles J. Chaput OFM Cap., then Archbishop of Denver, during April 2007. Discussions continued between Morris and the Vatican for several years.
On 1 May 2011, Bishop Morris announced his early retirement at age 67, stressing the fact that he had not resigned. On 2 May 2011, the Holy See removed Morris from pastoral care of the diocese, attracting international press coverage. The Holy See appointed Brian Vincent Finnigan, Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane, to serve as Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese.
On 14 May 2012, it was announced that Pope Benedict XVI had named the Reverend Monsignor Robert McGuckin as bishop-elect of the Toowoomba diocese. He was installed on 11 July.
Ordinaries
The following have been elected as Bishops of Toowoomba:
Parishes
There are currently 35 parishes in the diocese and 42 diocesan priests.
Schools
The diocese has the following schools:
Heritage listings
The diocese has a number of heritage-listed sites, including:
Sexual abuse
In February 2014 the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse, a royal commission of inquiry initiated in 2013 by the Australian Government and supported by all of its state governments, began an investigation into allegations of child sexual abuse and the response by the Diocesan Catholic Education Office. The former Bishop of Toowoomba, Bill Morris, admitted that "there had been a number of significant systemic failings which lead to the failure to properly deal with" the abuse of thirteen young girls at a Toowoomba Catholic primary School in 2007-08.