Roman Catholic Diocese of Armidale

Diocese of Armidale Dioecesis Armidalensis
Cathedral of St Mary and St Joseph, Armidale; consecrated in 1912
Location
Country	Australia
Territory	New England and Barwon River regions of New South Wales
Ecclesiastical province	Sydney
Coordinates	30°30′58″S 151°39′50″E / 30.51611°S 151.66389°E / -30.51611; 151.66389
Statistics
Area	91,500 km2 (35,300 sq mi)
Population - Total - Catholics	(as of 2006) 146,769 43,223 ( 29.4%)
Parishes	25
Information
Denomination	Catholic Church
Sui iuris church	Latin Church
Rite	Roman Rite
Established	28 November 1869
Cathedral	Saints Mary and Joseph Catholic Cathedral
Current leadership
Pope	Francis
Bishop	sede vacante
Metropolitan Archbishop	Anthony Fisher OP
Website
armidale.catholic.org.au

The Diocese of Armidale is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in Australia. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Sydney. The Diocese of Armidale was established in 1869 and covers the New England and Barwon River regions of New South Wales.

Saints Mary and Joseph Catholic Cathedral is the cathedra of the Bishop of Armidale, presently vacant after Michael Kennedy was appointed to the Diocese of Maitland-Newcastle.^[1][2] The Administrator is Monsignor Edward (Ted) Wilkes and the administrator sat with the other Australian Bishops while attending the parramatta funeral of former Bishop Kevin Manning in 2024.

Erected 28 November 1869.^[3] Promptly following the philanthropic acquisition and dedication of land on the western side of central park Armidale, the foundation stone of the first of two brick cathedrals was laid and blessed on 8 December 1870, by the Administrator Monsignor John Thomas Lynch, an alumnus of St Patrick's Maynooth Ireland, on the same day that St Joseph was named as the patron of the Universal Church.^[4] The first bishop, Most Reverend Timothy O'Mahony D.D, an alumnus of The Irish College in Rome and a director of the missionary movement of Propaganda Fide for Ireland, was forced to resign over politically motivated false allegations of alcoholism and fathering a child, although he was eventually cleared by a church investigation and subsequent events.^[5] A sesquicentenary celebration of Bishop O'Mahony's installation at Armidale, by Archbishop Polding, an English Benedictine, was celebrated on 9.3.2021 and led by Archbishop Fisher and Bishop Kennedy.^[6] A large white 2021 dated memorial stone has since been installed on the south side of the cathedral front doors-complementing that on the north side of the cathedral pyrmont sandstone front doors that commemorates another significant event being the blessing of the current cathedral by Cardinal Moran.

Bishops of Armidale:^[3][7]

Order	Name	Title	Date installed	Term ended	Term of office	Reason for term end
1	Timothy O'Mahony	Bishop of Armidale	1869	July 1877	7–8 years	Resigned from Rome
2	Elzear Torreggiani	Bishop of Armidale	November 1879	January 1904	24–25 years	Died in office
3	Patrick O'Connor	Coadjutor Bishop of Armidale	May 1903	January 1904	0–1 year	Succeeded as Bishop of Armidale
		Bishop of Armidale	January 1904	July 1932	27–28 years	Died in office
4	John Coleman	Coadjutor Bishop of Armidale	September 1929	July 1932	2–3 years	Succeeded as Bishop of Armidale
		Bishop of Armidale	July 1932	December 1947	14–15 years	Died in office
5	Edward Doody	Bishop of Armidale	25 April 1948 (1948-04-25)	9 April 1968 (1968-04-09)	19 years, 350 days	Died in office
6	James Darcy Freeman	Bishop of Armidale	December 1968	1971	2–3 years	Elevated as Archbishop of Sydney
7	Henry Kennedy	Bishop of Armidale	February 1972	26 April 1991 (1991-04-26)	18–19 years	Retired
8	Kevin Manning	Bishop of Armidale	10 July 1991 (1991-07-10)	10 July 1997 (1997-07-10)	6 years, 0 days	Elevated as Bishop of Parramatta
9	Luc Julian Matthys	Bishop of Armidale	March 1999	December 2011	11–12 years	Retired as Emeritus Bishop of Armidale
10	Michael Kennedy	Bishop of Armidale	February 2012	February 2023	10–11 years	Appointed to Maitland–Newcastle.

James Darcy Freeman was elevated to Cardinal in 1973, concurrent with Archbishop of Sydney.

Coadjutors are included above.

• Jeremiah Joseph Doyle, appointed Bishop of Grafton in 1887
• John Steven Satterthwaite, appointed Coadjutor Bishop of Lismore in 1969
• Gerard Joseph Hanna, appointed Bishop of Wagga Wagga in 2002

The diocesan cathedral is dedicated to Saint Mary and Saint Joseph and is located in Dangar Street, Armidale, opposite Armidale Central Park and diagonally opposite the Anglican cathedral. It was built in 1911 of Pyrmont stone and Armidale polychrome brick.^[8] It was solemnly dedicated on 12 December 1919.^{[citation needed]}

As of November 2014^[update], there are currently 25 parishes located in Diocese of Armidale:

• Catholic Diocese of Armidale
• Australian Catholic Bishops Conference: Diocese of Armidale Archived 6 December 2006 at the Wayback Machine