The Restoration of the English Catholic Hierarchy in 1850

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 

Some topical anniversary posts from around the Blogosphere

Here are some posts from other blogs which may interest readers - I would commend each of them in their own right to others.

First there are some fine pictures from the New Liturgical Movement of the Solemn Pontifical Mass at the London Oratory last night. The celebrant was Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster. They can be seen at Pontifical Mass for the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception at the London Oratory

New Catholic at Rorate Caeli has a piece by Bishop Ullathorne, first Catholic Bishop of Birmingham, in the post On the 160th Anniversary of the Dogmatic Definition of the Immaculate Conception by Pope Pius IX

Peter Kwasniewski at Rorate Caeli has a post with links to the relevant texts of both the Papal encyclical Quanta Cura and the Syllabus itself in The 150th Anniversary of Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors. Reading the texts makes one realise how little has changed in terms of the issues, however much we may think the circumstances have changed.

Finally The Mad Monarchist has a post about the Greek political and constitutional catastrophe of forty years ago with the referendum on the monarchy there. It can be read at Anniversary of a Greek Tragedy

The Papal cappa

Fr Tim has an interesting note on the Hermeneutic of Continuity which is of interest to those who have an interest in matters of Papal attire and ceremonial - well, let's be honest,that's all of us is n't it? His post Blessed Pius IX a bit of a modernist? is about the Papal cappa.