Michaelmas Day was the 175th anniversary of the restoration of the English and Welsh territorial Hierarchy and their dioceses by Bl. Pope Pius IX in 1850. This was in the bull Universalis Ecclesiae This was to be followed by the re-establishment of the Scottish Hierarchy in 1878.
There is an account of the Papal action, and the response to it on the part of the more violent Protestant tradition in England from Wikipedia at Universalis Ecclesiae.
With this bull the Pope restored a national diocesan system - albeit with new territorial designations - that had ceased to exist with the deaths in prison at Wisbech Castle of Bishop Thomas Watson of Lincoln in 1584 and that in exile in Rome of Bishop Thomas Goldwell of St Asaph in 1585.
The original arrangement of the Archbishopric of Westminster with twelve suffragens, the dioceses based on the old Districts and Vicars acting on behalf of the Pope, has now evolved into one with five archdioceses and a total of twenty dioceses.
Unlike the quite considerable celebrations in 1950 to mark the centenary there has been little this year to mark the anniversary. However the Archdiocese of Westminster has produced a video with some account of the events of 1850 and an interview with Cardinal Nichols which can be seen at Restoration of the Hierarchy: 175 years of the Diocese of Westminster
Laus Deo
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