Parishes number 22 and the archdiocese extends over central New Zealand between Levin and Masterton in the north to Kaikoura to Westport in the south.

[1] The suffragan sees are: The Catholic faith of the new immigrants to Wellington was initially sustained through the efforts of John Fitzgerald who arrived on 31 January 1840.

The first resident priest was the Capuchin Father Jeremiah O’Riley who arrived as chaplain to Hon Henry William Petre, a director of the New Zealand Company and one of the founders of Wellington.

O’Riley arrived in January 1843 and within a year the first, small Catholic church was built and dedicated to the Nativity.

Meanwhile, the Auckland-based French Marists ministered extensively throughout the country and Fr J.B. Compte SM established a permanent mission at Ōtaki in 1844.

The discovery of gold in 1857 and after meant a rapid expansion of the Church on the West Coast, and Dunedin became a separate diocese in 1869.

He said that fewer resources would be poured into retaining buildings and more attention and energy focused on serving the poor, as required by Pope Francis and the synod.

Francis Redwood was bishop of that diocese until 1887 when he became archbishop of the Archdiocese of Wellington (created in that year) and Metropolitan of New Zealand.

Documented cases of child sexual abuse by Catholic priests and brothers in the Wellington area include: