The new Bishop of Plymouth has been installed at a ceremony attended by people from across his diocese which includes Cornwall, Devon and Dorset.

Rt Rev Nicholas Hudson will lead a diocese that serves a Catholic population of approximately 11,293 across 57 parishes and 37 schools throughout the three counties.

The service took place at the Cathedral Church of St Mary and St Boniface, Plymouth, on the Patronal Feast Day of St Cuthbert Mayne.

Senior Catholic clergy, including Archbishop Miguel Maury Buendía, Apostolic Nuncio to Great Britain, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Most Rev John Wilson, Metropolitan Archbishop of Southwark and archbishops and bishops from England and Wales attended the Installation Mass.

In his homily, Bishop Hudson reflected on the importance of both lay and ordained ministry and of the encouraging signs of a 'Quiet Revival'. But he identified a twofold challenge, saying communities need to help new and returning Catholics to really find their place in their Church, and to draw many more people – both young and old – to Christ and the life of the sacraments.

Bishop Nicholas said: "we need to deepen the quality of our listening to the Spirit, to one another, and to our context; our listening to every generation in the Church – but with a special attentiveness to the young, to the poor, to the marginalised, to those who stand on the outside looking in.”

Bishop Hudson was ordained as a priest for the Archdiocese of Southwark in 1986 and has served as an Auxiliary Bishop of Westminster and Titular Bishop of St Germans in Cornwall since 2014.

Plymouth has been without a bishop since Rt Rev Mark O'Toole was elevated to become Archbishop of Cardiff-Menevia in 2022.

The installations of two others who had previously been announced for the role, Canon Christopher Whitehead and Bishop Philip Moger, were suspended in 2023 and June 2025.