2018 marks the 32nd Anniversary of the Diocese of Parramatta.
On 8 April in 1986 Pope St John Paul II erected the Diocese of Parramatta and on 19 May in the same year, Bishop Bede Heather took possession of St Patrick’s Church in Parramatta which was elevated to a Cathedral and the Diocese of Parramatta was launched.
Pope St John Paul II created the Diocese with a Papal Bull addressed to His Eminence, Edward Bede Cardinal Clancy, Archbishop of Sydney in 1986. The bull names Parramatta, Blacktown, Holroyd, Penrith, Blue Mountains, Baulkham Hills Shire and the Shire of Hawkesbury. The Diocese was created to better serve the needs of the Catholic people in the Blue Mountains and Western Sydney.
The Diocese of Parramatta takes in seven local government divisions: Baulkham Hills Shire, Blacktown City, the City of the Blue Mountains, Hawkesbury Shire, the Municipality of Holroyd, Parramatta City and Penrith City and parts of Wollondilly and Liverpool. This area encompasses the lands of the Darug people.
The Papal Bull that instituted the Diocese of Parramatta.
Although the Diocese was established in 1986, there was already a vibrant Catholic life in the area stretching back to the beginning of European settlement.
Much has changed in the Diocese, and in the society in which we live in these past 32 years, but there is clear evidence around us that the faith is alive and well, and flourishing in the lives of Catholic people who constitute the particular Church of Parramatta.
For more information about the history of the Diocese of Parramatta, please click here.
