Translation of Latin text:
PAUL, BISHOP, SERVANT OF THE SERVANTS OF GOD (as a perpetual record)
That which the second Vatican Council laid down concerning the delineation of ecclesiastical boundaries We judge to apply to the Diocese of Northampton, which it appears opportune to divide so as to create a new diocese. For by God’s favour the welfare of the Catholic Church in the large eastern part of the diocese seems to have prospered, and seems likely to prosper further in the future.
At the request therefore of our Venerable Brother Charles Alexander Grant, Bishop of Northampton, with the support of Episcopal Conference of England and Wales, that we should establish a new diocese by the division of the same. We, on the advice of our venerable Brother Bruno Bernard Heim, titular Bishop of Xanthia and Apostolic Delegate to Great Britain, by our Apostolic power determine and ordain the following.
From the Diocese of Northampton We remove those counties known in English as Cambridgeshire, Norfolk, and Suffolk, and erect them into a Diocese to be known as East Anglia, to be circumscribed by and coterminous with the said counties. Its See is to be located in the City of Norwich, and the Bishop’s cathedra set up in the church of Saint John the Baptist, in the same city, which is to be its cathedral. To the Bishop we grant those rights proper to, and impose upon him those obligations incumbent upon, resident bishops. The said diocese shall be suffragan to the metropolitan See of Westminster, and the Bishop subject to the Archbishop of the said See. The Bishop’s support is to be provided for from the income of the diocesan Curia, the moneys given by the faithful and that part of the diocesan property agreed upon by the ordinaries concerned, whilst respecting the wishes of any respective pious founders or benefactors.
Until such time as a Chapter of Canons shall be established, diocesan Consultors are to be appointed according to law. As far as the government and administration of the diocese are concerned, the election of a Vicar capitular, and other similar matters, are to be strictly adhered to. A seminary is also to be set up, and boys and young men are to be educated therein, according to the norms of the Second Vatican Council and the rules laid down by the Sacred Congregation for Catholic Education. As for the clergy, we determine that those priests be assigned to the Diocese of East Anglia who hold a benefice or ecclesiastical office therein: other clergy are to belong to the diocese in which they lawfully reside. However, the diocesan Bishops, on consultation with the priests and clerics concerned, may if necessary make other provision for their incardination, as seems fitting.
Finally, the documents and acts concerning the diocese of East Anglia are to be sent to its Curia to be preserved in its archive.
Let our aforementioned Venerable Brother Bruno Heim provide for the execution of these matters which we have prescribed, and on their conclusion send an account of the same to the Sacred Congregation for Bishops.
We wish these Apostolic letters to be ratified, now and in the future, all things to the contrary notwithstanding.
Given in Rome, at St Peter’s, on the thirteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and seventy six, the thirteenth of our Pontificate.
+John, Cardinal Villot +Sebastian Cardinal Baggio
Secretary of State Prefect of the S. Congregation for Bishops
Godfrey Mariani, Protonotary Apostolic
