Diocese of Plymouth


The Diocese of Plymouth is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in England. The episcopal see is in the city of Plymouth, Devon, where the bishop's seat is located at the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Boniface.

History

Erected as the Diocese of Plymouth in 1850 by Pope Pius IX, from the Apostolic Vicariate of the Western District, the diocese has remained jurisdictionally constant since. Since 1965, the diocese has been a suffragan see of the Ecclesiastical Province of Southwark; before then, from 1850 to 1911 it was in the Province of Westminster, then from 1911 to 1965 in the Province of Birmingham.
In December 2023, Christopher Whitehead from the Diocese of Clifton was appointed bishop-elect of the diocese, replacing Bishop Mark O’Toole, who had been appointed as Archbishop of Cardiff a year prior. His episcopal ordination was due to take place on 22 February. On 1 February, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales released a statement that Whitehead was under canonical investigation, and that the ordination would not take place, no reason was given. The diocese remains under a diocesan administrator.
On 13 September 2024 it was announced that Pope Francis had appointed Philip Moger as bishop of the Diocese of Plymouth. He was due to be installed as bishop on Saturday 9 November at the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Boniface, Plymouth. On 6 November, however, Moger issued an apology stating he intended to postpone his installation until termination of the investigation of personal issued raised. Mentions of due process in his statement raised the question of if Moger was subject to a canonical inquiry.
In February 2025, Pope Francis accepted Moger's request to step down from his appointment as Bishop of the Diocese of Plymouth. The diocese remained under the leadership of diocesan administrator Canon Paul Cumminns, until the appointment of Bishop Nicholas Hudson. Bishop Hudson was installed on 29th November 2025.

Details

The diocese covers the counties of Cornwall, Devon and Dorset, stretching from Penzance and the Isles of Scilly in the west, to parts of Bournemouth in the east. It is divided into five deaneries: Cornwall, Dorset, Exeter, Plymouth, and Torbay. There are chaplaincies at the universities of Bournemouth, Exeter and Plymouth.

Bishops

Ordinaries

  • George Errington
  • William Vaughan
  • Charles Maurice Graham
  • John Joseph Keily
  • John Patrick Barrett
  • Francis Joseph Grimshaw
  • Cyril Edward Restieaux
  • Hugh Christopher Budd
  • Mark O'Toole

    Coadjutor Bishops

  • Charles Maurice Graham
  • James Moor, did not take effect

    Other priests of this diocese who became bishops

  • Robert Brindle, appointed auxiliary bishop of Westminster in 1899, and then Bishop of Nottingham in 1901.
  • Robert Bernard Brownlow, appointed Bishop of Clifton in 1894

    Churches

Cornwall: Bodmin, Tintagel, Falmouth
Devon: Exeter Sacred Heart, Plymouth Cathedral of St Mary and St Boniface, Torquay and Torquay
Dorset: Dorchester, Weymouth
Monasteries, abbeys and priories: Buckfast Abbey, Ivybridge St Austin's Priory, Lanherne Carmelite Community, Sclerder Abbey