Pope Francis’ appoints a new Bishop
Pope Francis has appointed Canon David James Oakley as the thirteenth Bishop of Northampton. Bishop-elect Oakley served as Rector of St Mary’s College Oscott, a seminary in Birmingham for training priests for ministry in England and Wales, since February 2013. He succeeds the Right Reverend Peter Doyle whom he described as “a wonderful spiritual father and great pastor in Northampton”.
Bishop Doyle has worked closely with Bishop-elect Oakley during his seven years as rector of the seminary at Oscott, and knows him to be a man of faith and prayer, and a pastoral priest and wise teacher.
News and events from across the diocese
Bishop of Plymouth opens church in Gillingham, Dorset, to serve growing Catholic communities
In response to increasing Catholic congregations and housing growth, one of the first episcopal acts of the new Bishop of Plymouth, the Right Reverend Nicholas Hudson, will be to celebrate a Mass for the Dedication of the new church and altar of St Benedict’s, formerly a Methodist chapel, in Gillingham, Dorset on Tuesday 9 December.
Installation Newsletter
A special edition newsletter shares some of the highlights of the installation of the Rt Rev. Nicholas Hudson as Bishop of Plymouth.
Bishop Nicholas Celebrates First Public Mass at Plymouth Cathedral
In his first public Mass as Bishop of Plymouth at the Cathedral Church of St Mary & St Boniface, on Advent Sunday 30th November 2025, the Right Reverend Nicholas Hudson called for prayers for peace in the land of Jesus’s birth, and for all those places where there is strife and suffering, particularly South Sudan and Ukraine. The bishop also urged the congregation to pray for themselves during Advent, for those nearest and dearest to them and for all those who find themselves in real need.
