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The territorial remit of the diocese includes much of countiesAntrim and Down, including the cities of Belfast, Lisburn and Bangor, and the large towns Antrim, Ballymena, Carrickfergus, Downpatrick, Holywood, Larne and Newtownards. The population of the diocese is about one million, of which approximately 30% are Catholic with Sunday Mass attendance is estimated at 20%.[1] There are currently 88 parishes and ministries in the diocese served by fewer than 100 priests, though the significance of individual parishes has been overtaken by the development of 'pastoral communities'. The diocese is Ireland's second largest in terms of population, after the Archdiocese of Dublin.[1]
St Fergus (died 583) was the first Bishop of Down. The Diocese of Connor was founded in 480 at Connor, County Antrim, by Mac Nisse. St. Malachy later became bishop in 1124. The dioceses of Down and Connor were permanently joined in 1439.
In 1670, as an effect of the Reformation, wars, and penal laws, in the whole of Down and Connor there were only 2,500 Catholic families. When at length the pressure of penal legislation was removed Catholicism revived rapidly.
In the period 1810–1840, a period of relaxation of the penal laws culminating in Catholic Emancipation, an estimated forty new churches were built, mostly in the rural parts of the diocese. This progress made under William Crolly (1825–1835) and Cornelius Denvir (1835–65) was continued as Belfast expanded as a city, under Patrick Dorrian (1865–86) and Patrick MacAlister (1886–95) and Henry Henry (1895–1908).
A diocesan chapter was erected in December 1920 in line with the 1917 Code of Canon Law. At the time of Partition it was one of only two Catholic dioceses to be wholly inside the new jurisdiction of Northern Ireland, the Catholic population at the time being estimated at 180,000 souls, served by 160 diocesan priests.[2]
Bishop Treanor joined other Irish bishops in February 2017 for the ad limina visit.[57] Unlike previous visits there were no private meetings with diocesan bishops and Pope Francis, rather the Pontiff spoke with the bishops together.[58]
^Fryde, E. B.; Greenway, D. E.; Porter, S.; Roy, I. (1986). Handbook of British Chronology (3rd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 423–424. ISBN0-521-56350-X.
