New diocese plan

The proposed new diocese centred on Sheffield will, it is stated. have a Catholic population of about 84,000. The guide-line laid down by the Bishops' Conference in the 1974 "Ground Plan Report" was that a diocese should not normally have fewer than 80,000.
It nowhere, however, ventured to state what would be the maximum number of parishes to which one bishop might he expected to give proper pastoral oversight. It is noteworthy that the sceheme of episcopal pastoral areas now in operation in the archdiocese of Westminster has around .40 to 50 parishes per area. The proposed new diocese would have between 70 and 80,
"Ground Plan" went on to emphasise that the first concern in revising diocesan boundaries must he with the organic unity of each diocese. Natural and civil units were to be preserved as far as possible.
It is therefore difficult to understand why the Peak District of Derbyshire, and the part of North Lincolnshire included since 1974 within the so-called "Humberside" county, should be added to South Yorkshire. Most of the parishes in the High Peak would seem to look more towards the Greater Manchester conurbation than to Sheffield.
As for "South Humberside," the Isle of Axholme, it is true, was always an entity on its own, rather like the Isle of Ely. Scunthorpe may be an alien town, but even it would hardly look towards Sheffield. any more than it would towards Nottingham. No more, I would venture to think, would Grimsby. As for the surrounding country, it is Lincolnshire.
It is significant that the present proposals reject one of the more foolish suggestions of' "Ground Plan," that for a diocese straddling the !lumber to include the whole of "Humberside." Even if the Sheffield commuter belt of North Nottinghamshire (and the High Peak) were to be excluded, Nottingham diocese would, however, remain far too large and overpopulated.
Would it not be better to think in terms ofsetting up a diocese (or pastoral area) to include Leicestershire and Lincolnshire with "South Humberside" rather than tacking the latter on to the South Yorkshire See?
T. Sweeney Portsmouth, Hampshire.