Catholic Intelligence

Diocese of Darwin

Darvinen(sis)

The Diocese of Darwin spans the Northern Territory and is the largest diocese in Australia by area. Established under earlier names from 1847 and renamed the Diocese of Darwin in 1938, it is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Adelaide, led by Bishop Charles Gauci since 2018.

The see

Rank
Suffragan diocese
Tradition
Latin Church
Erected
1938
Latin
Darvinen(sis)
Patron
Our Lady, Star of the Sea
Annuario code
001001278

The see in figures

Catholics
45,600
Population
205,900
Catholic share
22.1%

of the people living within its bounds

Priests
27
Catholics per priest
1,689
Extent
1,352,212 km²
Catholics per km²
0.0

Figures as recorded in the register, from the Annuario Pontificio and the see's own published statements. Shares and ratios are computed from the two figures shown beside them.

The bishop

Bishop
Charles Gauci

A see whose chair stands empty is recorded as vacant rather than filled with a guess. On what a bishop is, see the bishop.

The cathedral

St Mary's Star of the Sea Cathedral, Darwin stands in Darwin, the church that holds the cathedra from which this see takes its name.

On what a cathedral is, see the cathedral; every see church on earth is gathered at the cathedrals.

The province of Adelaide

A suffragan of Archdiocese of Adelaide.

The sees of this province:

On how the Church is ordered into provinces, see the diocese.

History

By land area the largest diocese in Australia, the Diocese of Darwin is a Latin Church jurisdiction centred on Darwin in the Northern Territory and suffragan to the metropolitan Archdiocese of Adelaide. Its territory was first administered by the Vicariate Apostolic of New Holland and Van Diemen's Land. The Vicariate Apostolic of Essington followed in 1845, elevated as part of the Diocese of Victoria in 1847, restyled the Diocese of Victoria-Palmerston in 1888, and finally renamed the Diocese of Darwin in 1938.

What is kept by invitation

The record above is published because it is public: what this see is, when it was erected, who holds its chair, and where it stands among its neighbours.

The working record is not. The chancery's address, telephone and email, the clergy of the see, and the hours of Mass, confession and adoration in the parishes within it are kept for members, and a person reads every request.

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Sources

The see's own website · Wikipedia

This record is compiled from the published statements of the see and the references of the Holy See, among them the Annuario Pontificio. On the method, see the keeping of the record. Whoever finds an error is asked, in charity, to write: [email protected].