Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide

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Archdiocese of Adelaide

The Archdiocese of Adelaide is the main Roman Catholic authority for the Adelaide region in South Australia. It is a Latin Church archdiocese using the Roman Rite. The cathedral is St Francis Xavier’s Cathedral, and the patron saint is St Patrick. The archdiocese covers about 103,600 square kilometres and serves around 275,000 Catholics (about 21% of the local population) as of 2006.

History

- Established on 5 April 1842 as the Vicariate Apostolic of Adelaide, created from territory taken from the Apostolic Vicariate of New Holland and Van Diemen’s Land.
- Promoted to the Diocese of Adelaide on 22 April 1842.
- In 1845 it lost territory to form the Apostolic Vicariate of King George Sound (The Sound); it recovered that area in 1847 when the vicariate was suppressed.
- Promoted to the Archdiocese of Adelaide on 10 May 1887, while losing territory to form the Diocese of Port Augusta.
- Pope John Paul II visited Adelaide in November 1986.
- On 19 March 2020, Pope Francis named Patrick O’Regan as the 12th Archbishop of Adelaide.

Ecclesiastical Province

The Archdiocese of Adelaide is the metropolitan see of the Ecclesiastical Province of Adelaide, which includes the archdiocese itself and its suffragan dioceses.

Current leadership and notes

- The archbishop is Patrick O’Regan (appointed in March 2020).
- In 2018, Archbishop Philip Wilson was found guilty of concealing abuse and resigned. Pope Francis appointed Bishop Gregory O’Kelly, SJ, of Port Pirie as Apostolic Administrator on 3 June 2018; Wilson’s resignation was accepted on 30 July 2018, and he did not return as Archbishop.

Website

adelaide.catholic.org.au