LIVERPOOL, ARCHDIOCESE OF.
A city and archdiocese in England; it comprises the southwestern part of Lancashire.
Of a population of 2,374,824 (1931 census), it contains approximately 432,292 Catholics, distributed in 178 parishes served by 501 secular priests and 188 regulars, 40 male and 82 female religious communities, and a diocesan seminary; in 1948 there were 1,234 conversions. Patrons of the diocese: the Immaculate Conception, St. Joseph, and St. Kentigern.
At the beginning, Lancashire formed part of the Kingdom of Northumbria and the diocese of York, but as early as 642 the southern part was transferred to the Kingdom of Mercia and the diocese of Lichfield. In 1542 Henry VIII founded the new schismatic diocese of Chester, which included southern Lancashire, and it became Protestant under Queen Elizabeth. Its pretended bishops were great persecutors of the faithful of Lancashire, which had many glorious martyrs, such as the Venerable George Haydock (1584), the Venerable John Thules (1616), and the Blessed Edmund Arrowsmith (1628). From 1688 to 1840, Lancashire formed part of the Apostolic Vicariate of the North (Northern District), which in 1840 was divided into three parts, namely the Districts of: 1) Northern (Northumberland, Cumberland, Westmorland, and Durham), 2) Yorkshire, and 3) Lancashire, which included Cheshire. The diocese was created by Pope Pius IX on 29 September 1850. On that date, Lancashire was divided between the dioceses of Liverpool and Salford, while Cheshire became part of the diocese of Shrewsbury. On 22 November 1924, Pope Pius XI, with the apostolic constitution *Universalis Ecclesiae sollicitudo*, detached from the diocese of Liverpool the region of Lancashire north of the River Ribble, creating the new diocese of Lancaster.
The first bishop of Liverpool was George Hilary Brown (d. 1856). He was succeeded by Alexander Goss (1856–72), then by Bernard O'Reilly (1873–94), who founded Upholland Seminary in 1880 (opened in 1883). He was followed by Thomas Whiteside (1894–1921); from 1911, Frederick William Keating (1921–28), and the present bishop, Richard Downey.
The pro-cathedral is dedicated to St. Nicholas; the cathedral is under construction. Its suffragan sees are the dioceses of Hexham and Newcastle, Lancaster, Leeds, Middlesbrough, and Salford.
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After a journey of fourteen months, he reached his destination and founded the mission of Uganda, soon becoming its first Apostolic Vicar. In the last years of his life, he saw twenty-two of his first Christian martyrs raised to the altars, beatified in 1920. In 1889 he had been elected Vicar General of the Society of the White Fathers, and after the death of Cardinal Lavigerie, he became its Superior General for life until his death on 11 November 1922.
Bishop L. left behind memories of himself as a saint, and was regarded as a divine envoy to gather the spiritual heritage of the founder and transmit it intact to the emerging society.
Giovanni B. Canet