A consultation over whether three English dioceses should be merged revealed “a remarkable consensus” in favor of unification, the bishop overseeing the process said in a report published Wednesday.
Bishop Marcus Stock said in a 46-page consultation report, issued Oct. 14, that he believed a merger of the Hallam, Leeds, and Middlesbrough dioceses “would help to strengthen the mission of the local Church.”
According to the report, the unified diocese would serve a total of 495,817 Catholics, combining 140,571 from Hallam, 229,453 from Leeds, and 125,793 from Middlesbrough.
A possible U.S. analogy — in terms of the size of the Catholic population — would be a hypothetical merger of the Youngstown, Erie, and Greensburg dioceses. There is no such merger on the table, of course, but as a thought experiment it is arguably similar.
The Diocese of Youngstown, Ohio, serves 124,206 Catholics, according to the latest figures at catholic-hierarchy.org. The Diocese of Erie, Pennsylvania, which borders the Youngstown diocese, has 194,456 Catholics. The Diocese of Greensburg, Pennsylvania, which borders the Erie diocese, has 135,100 Catholics.
In this analogy, Youngstown has a similar Catholic population
Read more...
