SOUTHWARK
163
SOUTHWARK
south of the Thames, including the southern half of
the administrative County of I^ondon. Southwark,
the principal borough in South London, is the cjiis-
copal city. This diocese was founded on the resto-
ration of the hierarchy in England in 1851, and when
first erected included Berkshiri", Hampshire, and the
Channel Islands in a(l< lit ion I . > Surrey, Kent and Sussex.
Previous to this these ti\-e counties formed part of
the London District, which district was governed by
a vicar Apostolic, to whom also was committed
episcopal jurisdiction over North America and the
Bahama Islands. In 1850 London, even at that
time a comparatively small city, which, owing to
the exigencies of the times, had previously been under
the jurisdiction of a single bishop, was now divided
between the two new Dioceses of Westminster
(north of the Thames) and Southwark (south
of the Thames), the newly-erected Church of St.
George, Southwark, astatelyandmagnificentstructure
in the Gothic style designed by the elder Pugin,
being designated as the cathedral of the newly-
erected see. On 6 July, 1851, Right Rev. Thomas
Grant, D.D., vice-
rector of the Eng-
lish College, Rome,
was consecrated as
first bishop at the
early age of thirty-
five. He was suc-
ceeded 25 Marih
1871, by Right Re\
James Danell, for
merly his vicar-
general. The next
occupant of the sec
was Bishop Robert
Coffin, who at thr
time of his appoint-
ment in 1882 was
Provincial of the
Redemptorists i n
Great Britain and
Ireland. On his ,mh,i,.h ..r
demise in 1885 the imnki^h ..r
choice of the Holy See fell upon his auxiliary. Bishop John Butt, who governed the diocese for twelve years until his resignation in 1897, when he was succeeded by his coadjutor, Bishop Francis Bourne, who became Archbishop of Westminster in 1903.
The present bi.'shop, Right Rev. Peter Emmanuel Amigo, was born at Gibraltar, 26 May, 1S64. He studied at St. Edmund's, Ware, and St. Thomas's, Hammersmith: was ordained priest, 25 Feb., 1888; was for a short time at Stoke Newington, then pro- fessor at St. Edmund's from Sept., 1888, to July, 1892. He was then appointed assistant priest at Hammersmith from Sept., 1892, to June, 1896. He was afterwards at St. Mary's and St. Michael's, Commercial Roafl, first as assistant priest, then as rector from June, 1896, to April, 1901. He was then appointed rector of the mission at Walworth in the Diocese of Southwark, and remained there until his consecration as Bishop of Southwark, 25 March, 1904. He is strenuously engaged in carrying on to their fullness the various important works initiated by his predecessors by multiplying much-needed churches and schools in all parts of this important diocese, as well jus endeavouring to pay off the enormous liabilities that in past years have had to be incurred in emergencies when there would have been the gravest danger of loss of faith, especially to the destitute little ones of the diocese, if the large and magnificently-equip|)ed oriihanages and poor-law schools of the diocese had not been promptly erected. In addition to the debts on the institutions there are also enormous debts incurred in the building of new
churches and schools in new and rapidly-growing
centres of population, which were necessary if work
for the pood of souls was to be .■idc(|u.'itely carried on
in the midst of the huge population of South London
.and its environs. There is every prospivt that the
efforts of the present bishop in this direction will be
crowned with complete success, as he has already
succeeded in securing for the important work of safe-
guarding the poorer children of the diocese from loss
of faith the united and cordial co-operation of not
only the whole of the clergy, but also of every class
of the laity, which is eloquently attested by the totals
of the subscriptions and collections for this purpose,
which go on steadily increasing from year to year.
As a consequence of this united support of clergy
and laity, joined with the establishment of a sinking
fund for the gradual extinction of mi.ssion debts.
Bishop Amigo looks forward to handing over to his
successor at the close of his life a splentlid array of
churches, schools, and institutions, all entirely free
from debt.
Southwark in many ways occupies a notable posi- tion amongst the dioceses of Eng- land. First of all. South London, with its enormous popu- lation of close on two million inhabi- tants (census of 1911, 1,844,310) is one of the largest cities in the world as well as one of the poorest. Being for the most part a place of residence for the salaried workers of London nort h f)f t lieTliaines, where all trade and business is concen- trated. South Lon- don, with its im- mense population, has scarcely a single hot el above the level of the third class to be found within its area. Outside the boundaries of .Siuth London ])roper there stretches towards the south a fringe of more sparsely populated residential districts, inhabited chiefly by the well-to-do professional and business people of the City of London, amongst whom there are very few Catholics. Between thLs residential zone and the English Channel lies, still further to the south, a pleasant well-wooded agricultural district that is also day by day becoming more residcTilial in char- acter, until the sea-coast is reached with its chain of watering places, girdling the coast line of Kent and Sussex from the mouth of the Thames on the north to beyond Selsey Bill on the south. These resorts are really suburbs of Ixindon by the sea, and in the summer months especially are filled by visitors drawn from all parts of London.
The Coimty of Kent, one of the most important of the niral divisions of this diocese, will always have an interest for English-speaking Catholics of all times, as the district in which Christianity was first preached in the Saxon tongue by St. .\vig\istine and his followers, who landed near Richboroiigh on the coast of Kent in 597. The actual church in which the Apostle of England offered up the Holy Sacrifice is still to be seen to this very day at Cant(;rbury, which, once the Primatial See of England, is now an unimportant and dwindling country town of this large diocese. The Diocese of Soiithwark, it may be noted, includes within its present boinuiaries not only the whole of the territories formerly belonging to the former Dioceses of Canterbury, Rochester,
