Devon, Cornwall and Dorset parishes attend long-awaited installation of new bishop
Report by Duncan Williams for Pulman's Weekly News
The Diocese of Plymouth has welcomed its new bishop after the installation of the Right Reverend Nicholas Hudson at a ceremony attended by clergy and parishioners from across Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.
The Installation Mass took place at the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Boniface on the patronal feast day of St Cuthbert Mayne, marking the formal beginning of Bishop Hudson’s leadership of a diocese serving around 11,293 Catholics across 57 parishes and 37 schools.
Senior Catholic leaders were present, including Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, and the Most Reverend John Wilson, Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark, alongside bishops from England and Wales.
Bishop Hudson, who was ordained a priest for the Archdiocese of Southwark in 1986, has served as an Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and Titular Bishop of St Germans in Cornwall since 2014. His appointment ends a lengthy period in which Plymouth has been without a bishop following the elevation of Rt Rev Mark O’Toole to Archbishop of Cardiff-Menevia in 2022. Two previously announced successors, Canon Christopher Whitehead and Bishop Philip Moger, had their installations suspended in 2023 and June 2025.
Speaking ahead of his installation, Bishop Hudson said: “I am deeply grateful to Pope Leo XIV for appointing me; and I do not take lightly the trust he has placed in me... I look forward greatly to meeting all who belong to the diocese.”
Pope Leo XIV, in the Bull of Appointment read during the service, affirmed his confidence in Hudson’s leadership, writing: “We thought of you, having carefully considered your pastoral achievements in the duties you have undertaken in the Archdiocese of Westminster, together with your spiritual and human gifts and your expertise in administration, which make you suitable for advancement to this greater office.”
In his homily, Bishop Hudson spoke of the encouraging signs of “a quiet revival” across the region, but also identified a central challenge facing the Church.
He said communities needed to help “new and returning Catholics to really find their place in their Church” while also striving “to draw many more people - both young and old - to Christ and the life of the sacraments”.
He emphasised the importance of deepening the Church’s openness to the Holy Spirit and attentiveness to all parts of the diocesan community.
“We need to deepen the quality of our listening to the Spirit, to one another, and to our context; our listening to every generation in the Church - but with a special attentiveness to the young, to the poor, to the marginalised, to those who stand on the outside looking in,” he said.
Bishop Hudson now begins his ministry in one of England’s most geographically wide dioceses, covering coastal communities, rural parishes and expanding urban areas.
( Photo: The Catholic Directory 📸 )