Introduction

‘I am delighted to be taking up my role as Bishop of the Diocese of Plymouth. I come with a desire to listen and to learn. I have chosen as my motto ‘In Te Domine Speramus’ – ‘In you, Lord, we hope’. I look forward to meeting people across the diocese and sharing that hope and trust in the Lord.”

Biography

Bishop Nicholas Hudson was born on 14 February 1959 in Hammersmith, London. He had an English father, Richard Hudson, who taught English at Kings College School, Wimbledon, for some 37 years; and a French mother, Marie-Charlotte, née Valdelièvre, of Paris. He is the fourth of five boys. His father was from an army family, but considered himself a West Country boy having lived in Parkstone, Poole, then Crownhill, Plymouth, and Yelverton; and having been schooled at Clifton College before entering Exeter College, Oxford.
Bishop Nicholas enjoyed 11 years’ education from the Jesuits at Wimbledon College between 1966 and 1977. He was awarded an exhibition to Jesus College, Cambridge, where he studied history for three years. He entered the Venerable English College, Rome, in 1981 to embark upon six years’ study in philosophy and theology at the Gregorian University. He was ordained as a deacon for the Archdiocese of Southwark at Palazzola, Rome by the 7th Bishop of Plymouth, the Right Reverend Cyril Restieaux, in 1985.
Bishop Nicholas was ordained priest at the Sacred Heart, Wimbledon, by Archbishop Michael Bowen of Southwark in 1986. His first appointment was to the parish of St Thomas of Canterbury in Canterbury from 1987 to 1991. This was followed by a year’s study of catechetics in Louvain by way of preparation to be Director of the Southwark Diocesan Christian Education Centre for some eight years while also being engaged in pastoral ministry at English Martyrs, Streatham.
The year 2000 saw his appointment as Vice-Rector and then, in 2004, as Rector, of the Venerable English College in Rome until 2013. He was for a short time Parish Priest of Sacred Heart, Wimbledon, before being appointed as Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster in 2014 and Titular Bishop of St Germans in Cornwall. As Auxiliary Bishop he has particular pastoral responsibility for the Central and Eastern areas of the Diocese, for Evangelisation and Catechesis, Marriage and Family Life, Enclosed Religious, Youth Ministry, and Justice and Peace. He is a trustee of the Cardinal Hume Centre, Providence Row, and the Romero Trust.
Within the Bishops’ Conference, he is Chair of the Department for International Affairs, with particular responsibility for European affairs, and a regular attender of COMECE. He is also Moderator of the Holy Land Coordination Group. In 2023, he was appointed a Papal Nominee to the Synod on Synodality. In 2024 he was elected by the Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales as their Episcopal Secretary.
His great uncle Noel Baring Hudson was Anglican Bishop of Newcastle and then Bishop of Ely.

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