Vincent Billington, MHM (14 May 1904 - 6 October 1976), was an

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priest who served as Bishop of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Jinja The Roman Catholic Diocese of Jinja () is a diocese located in the city of Jinja in the ecclesiastical province of Tororo in Uganda. History * June 10, 1948: Established as Apostolic Vicariate of Kampala from the Apostolic Vicariate of Upper ...

, in

Uganda Uganda, officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the ...

, from 13 May 1948 until 3 May 1965.

Background and priesthood

Billington was born on 14 May 1904, in the town of

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

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, in the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford The Diocese of Salford () is a Latin diocese of the Catholic Church centred on the City of Salford in Greater Manchester, England. The diocese was founded in 1852 as one of the first post-Reformation Catholic dioceses in Great Britain. Since 191 ...

, in the

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. He was ordained priest on 20 July 1930, taking the vows of the

Saint Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill The Mill Hill Missionaries (MHM), officially known as the Saint Joseph's Missionary Society of Mill Hill (), is a Catholic Church, Catholic society of apostolic life founded in 1866 by Herbert Vaughan, Herbert A. Vaughan. History The society wa ...

(Mill Hill Fathers). He served in that capacity until 13 May 1948.

As bishop

He was appointed bishop on 13 May 1948 by

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

and was consecrated as

Vicar Apostolic A vicar (; Latin: ''vicarius'') is a representative, deputy or substitute; anyone acting "in the person of" or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious" in the sense of "at second hand"). Linguistically, ''vicar'' is cognate with the English pre ...

of Kampala, Uganda and Titular Bishop of Avissa on 26 July 1948 by Archbishop

William Godfrey William Godfrey (25 July 1889 – 22 January 1963) was an English Cardinal (Catholicism), Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Westminster from 1956 until his death, and was elevated to the Cardinal (Catholicism), ...

†, Titular Archbishop of Cius, assisted by Bishop Thomas Edward Flynn†, Bishop of Lancaster, England, and Bishop Frederick Hall†, Titular Bishop of Alba Maritima. In 1953, when the Vicariate Apostolic of Kampala was elevated to the Diocese of Kampala, Bishop Billington was appointed the new Bishop of the Diocese of Kampala on 25 March 1953. On 3 May 1965, he resigned as Bishop of Kampala and was appointed that same day as Titular Bishop of Fallaba. He resigned from there on 7 December 1970. In 1953, the Diocese of Kampala was renamed the

. Bishop Billington died on 6 October 1976, as Bishop Emeritus of Kampala Diocese (now Diocese of Jinja), at the age of 72 years and 3 months.

Succession table at Jinja

References

External links

Profile of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Jinja

Kampala Archdiocese Marks 50 Years
As of 28 September 2017. {{DEFAULTSORT:Billington, Vincent 1904 births 1976 deaths 20th-century Roman Catholic bishops in Uganda English Roman Catholic bishops Roman Catholic bishops of Jinja