An interview with Bishop Nicholas Hudson, Bishop-elect of the Diocese of Plymouth
Bishop Nicholas Hudson: A Bishop Keen to Listen
Bishop Nicholas Hudson has recorded a short interview in which he talks about how he feels about becoming Bishop of Plymouth. He reflects on his desire to be a ‘listening Bishop’ and how he is looking forward to engaging with people across the diocese.
The following is a summary of the interview.
Ahead of his installation on Saturday 29 November, Bishop Nicholas Hudson speaks to us about his new appointment as Bishop of Plymouth.
The Diocese of Plymouth has been waiting a long time for a bishop. With the 29th of November, the installation date as Bishop of Plymouth, now fast approaching, Bishop Nicholas Hudson is very excited and can’t wait to begin.
His father’s West Country roots
His father came from an army family, and when he was very young, the family left India and settled in the West Country. They lived first in Parkstone, Poole, and then in Crownhill, Plymouth. His father was at school in Yelverton, then Clifton.
Reflecting on his appointment, Bishop Hudson said: “I’m very excited. I’m aware that the diocese has been waiting a long time for a bishop and I can’t wait to begin.”
A listening bishop for all generations
In any diocese you have a spectrum of the generations, all sorts of people from all sorts of backgrounds and places. Asked how he is hoping to relate to the old, the young, and everything in between, Bishop Hudson emphasised his commitment to listening.
“I want to be a listening bishop, and I want to make a real priority of listening from the outset. I want to listen in a special way to the clergy, of course. But I also want to be able to listen to people from across the generations.”
In his former diocese of Westminster, he spent a lot of time with young people, going with them to different parts of the world for World Youth Day, and different pilgrimages. He found it very important just to spend time with them. In Plymouth, he wants to give time to the young people and really to get to know how they see themselves contributing to the life of the Church.
A pastoral approach built on listening
People have always said that he’s a good listener. During the 12 years that he was an auxiliary bishop in Westminster, he had 55 parishes, which took him a while to get to know. His style there was to meet with the key people in each of the parishes, not just the clergy, but also lay people who had particularly significant roles, and to listen to their hopes for the parish and their hopes also for the deanery and the ways that they felt the parish could deepen and develop its mission. This will be very much his style in Plymouth. He explained:
“In terms of how one structures it, I think going to deaneries is first. That already gives one different areas of the diocese to begin to get impressions of, and then I’ll need to develop a strategy to see how I can systematically listen to the diocese across the board.”
Building one diocesan family across three counties
Asked about the key challenges and opportunities for the Catholic community in this region, Bishop Hudson identified building one diocesan family as a priority:
“I think that the key challenge will be to develop our sense of being one family, one diocesan family across the three counties. But I’m also aware that I am the new one coming into this community and that I’ll need to ask people what it is like to live this reality. What’s it like if you come from Penzance and how do you feel in relation to Poole and what it means to belong to such a huge community? But I do hope that the years that I’m in Plymouth, I’ll be able to build that sense of community along with other people.
Hope in the Jubilee Year
As the Church celebrates the Jubilee Year of Hope, and with the installation just weeks away, what does hope mean to Bishop Hudson as he takes up this new role?
“Hope means a lot to me, and I’ve always felt that hope is something that I have deep in my heart. I think all the years I’ve been a priest and a bishop, I’ve always wanted to communicate a sense of hope, and that’s a hope in the Lord himself. “There’s this wonderful line that St. Paul uses in his letter to Timothy when he says, ‘I know who it is whom I have put my trust in.’ It always strikes me that the words from the Psalm, which I’ve taken for my own motto, which is ‘In Te Domine Speramus’, which is of course ‘In you, Lord, we hope’, is often translated as ‘In you, Lord, we trust’. “Trust and hope are very close, and as I prepare myself to begin to be the Bishop of Plymouth, I’m looking forward to communicating that dual sense of trust and hope.”
Devotion to the Saints
Bishop Hudson is very excited that he is being installed on the feast day of one of the two patron saints of the diocese. The diocese has two patron saints: St Boniface and St Cuthbert Mayne. Bishop Hudson also spoke warmly about St Carlo Acutis, who was canonised earlier this year:
“I think the time that I’m in Plymouth, people will often hear me talking about St. Carlo Acutis. I think he’s a saint for all of us and in a special way for children and young people.
“I will be asking his intercession, newly canonised as he is, his intercession along with our patron saints for the Diocese of Plymouth.”
Installation Details
Bishop Nicholas Hudson will be installed as the Bishop of Plymouth on Saturday 29 November 2025.
