Skip to content
Intranet
  • Diocese
    • Bishop Philip Egan
    • Ten Year Plan
    • Vision
    • About
    • Careers
    • Parish Pages
    • Patrons
    • Contact Us
    • Framework for Collaboration
    • Leadership
    • Policies & Documents
  • Vocation
    • Become a Priest
    • Spirituality
    • Called and Gifted
    • Pilgrimages
    • The Liturgy Project
  • Evangelisation
    • Caritas
    • Bamenda
    • Accompaniment
    • Dialogue & Proclamation
  • Safeguarding
    • Bishop’s Message
    • Contact
    • Safeguarding Policies
    • Victims and Survivors
    • Training
    • Safeguarding Committee
    • Parish Resources
    • Feedback
    • FAQs
  • How do I…
    • Find a School
    • Find a Parish
    • Find a Priest
    • Find a Mass Time
    • Find a Deacon
    • Find a Chaplaincy
    • More…
  • Education & Youth
    • Young People & Ministry
    • University Chaplaincy
  • Support Us
    • Donate
    • Volunteer
    • Gift Aid
    • Stewardship
    • Fundraising
    • Leave a Gift in Your Will
  • News
    • e-News
    • Publications
    • Videos
    • Pastoral Letters
    • Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth Directory
Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth
  • Diocese
    • Bishop Philip Egan
    • Ten Year Plan
    • Vision
    • About
    • Careers
    • Parish Pages
    • Patrons
    • Contact Us
    • Framework for Collaboration
    • Leadership
    • Policies & Documents
  • Vocation
    • Become a Priest
    • Spirituality
    • Called and Gifted
    • Pilgrimages
    • The Liturgy Project
  • Evangelisation
    • Caritas
    • Bamenda
    • Accompaniment
    • Dialogue & Proclamation
  • Safeguarding
    • Bishop’s Message
    • Contact
    • Safeguarding Policies
    • Victims and Survivors
    • Training
    • Safeguarding Committee
    • Parish Resources
    • Feedback
    • FAQs
  • How do I…
    • Find a School
    • Find a Parish
    • Find a Priest
    • Find a Mass Time
    • Find a Deacon
    • Find a Chaplaincy
    • More…
  • Education & Youth
    • Young People & Ministry
    • University Chaplaincy
  • Support Us
    • Donate
    • Volunteer
    • Gift Aid
    • Stewardship
    • Fundraising
    • Leave a Gift in Your Will
  • News
    • e-News
    • Publications
    • Videos
    • Pastoral Letters
    • Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth Directory
  • ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ in our schools living out their Jubilee Pledge
    09/04/2026

    Andrea Hoyland reports that this year sees the highest number of Catholic Schools taking part in the Big Lent Walk as ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ to live out their Jubilee [...]

  • Bishop Philip visits Christ the King College
    09/04/2026

    Bishop Philip writes about his visit to Christ the King College, IOW Last Thursday, I went with Bishop Jonathan, the Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth, to Christ the King College [...]

  • Well done to the pupils of St Peter’s who collected over 300 Easter Eggs to donate to Stella Maris!
    27/03/2026

    Richard Cunningham, Executive Headteacher of St Peter's Catholic Primary School, Waterlooville writes: Well done to the pupils of St Peter's who collected over 300 Easter Eggs to donate to [...]

  • St Swithun Wells School Community Comes Together for Easter Passion Play
    27/03/2026

    Pupils from across the school came together to present a moving Easter Passion Play, retelling the journey of Jesus from Palm Sunday through to his death and resurrection. Every [...]

  • Chrism Mass – Tuesday 31 March 2026
    19/03/2026

    The Chrism Mass this year takes place on Tuesday 31 March at 11.00am in St John's Cathedral in Portsmouth.   The Mass is one of the main diocesan events of [...]

  • More Than 70 Voices Unite in Celebration as Portsmouth Gregorian Chant Course Concludes
    18/03/2026

    More than 70 people gathered at St John’s Cathedral, Portsmouth, on Saturday 14 March for the final instalment of the Portsmouth Gregorian Chant Course.   This programme has received widespread [...]

  • A Special Visit from the Relics of St Carlo Acutis to Corpus Christi Primary School
    09/04/2026

    Sheila Biddlecombe, teacher at Corpus Christi Catholic Primary School reports on last week's visit of St Carlo's relics. On Thursday 12th March, the relics of St Carlo Acutis visited Corpus Christi [...]

  • Bishop Philip visits Bishop Challoner Secondary School
    09/04/2026

    Bishop Philip writes about his visit to Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School, Basingstoke Last Thursday, I made a most enjoyable visitation of Bishop Challoner Catholic Secondary School in Basingstoke. [...]

  • Diocesan Pilgrimage to Turin and Assisi
    16/03/2026

     Join us on a pilgrimage lead by Bishop Philip Egan to Turin in northern Italy and Assisi in central Italy to learn about and experience the lives of our two [...]

  • Bamenda News: Spring 2026
    16/03/2026

    Thank you for your continued prayers and contributions that help support our brothers and sisters in our twinned diocese of Bamenda.   We are delighted that from 15-18 April 2026 [...]

  • Stella Maris, a lifeline for seafarers and fishers when crisis strikes
    16/03/2026

    Being a seafarer or a fisher can be a dangerous and difficult job. When crisis strikes, the consequences can often be devastating, especially if there is no one to turn [...]

  • Caritas Newsletter Spring 2026
    10/03/2026

    Here is the latest issue of the Caritas newsletter, with updates on social action, partnerships, volunteering opportunities and resources from around the diocese. To receive the next issue straight into your [...]

  • Relics of Saint Carlo Acutis – St John’s Cathedral – 11 and 12 March 2026
    06/03/2026

    Everyone is welcome to visit the relics of Saint Carlo Acutis at St John's Cathedral in Portsmouth on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 March. Here are further details: Wednesday 11 [...]

  • Lenten Renewal Conference and Healing Service – all welcome!
    03/03/2026

    The AFCM UK Awakening Team is leading a Lenten Renewal Conference at St John the Evangelist Cathedral in Portsmouth on 27-28 March 2026 and everyone is welcome to come along. [...]

  • Theology on Tap: next event is Friday 20 March with Bishop Philip Egan
    03/03/2026

    Bishop Philip Egan, Bishop of Portsmouth, will speak on this month's topic: Can Catholic teaching change?  Come and join the discussion (6.30pm to 7.30pm) at the Cathedral Hall, Discovery Centre, [...]

  • Lent prayers and resources
    03/03/2026

    Fr Gaston Forbah Afah, Parish Priest for English Martyrs, Reading, and Episcopal Vicar For Evangelisation, has put together some resources to inspire and support people through Lent. Lent Retreat with [...]

  • CAFOD Lent Appeal: Help Families Put Food on the Table
    17/02/2026

    This Lent, as we deepen and enliven our faith, we can reflect on Jesus’ call to “love your neighbour as yourself” (Mark 12:31) and pray that we can give more help to families facing hunger today due to floods and droughts.

  • Archbishop Richard Moth installed as Archbishop of Westminster
    16/02/2026

    Picture: The Catholic Church Bishops' Conference of England and Wales On Saturday, 14 February, the Most Reverend Richard Moth was installed as the 12th Archbishop of Westminster at Westminster Cathedral. [...]

  • Farnborough School Visits by Bishop Philip
    09/04/2026

    Bishop Philip writes about his visit to St Bernadette's and St Patrick's Catholic Primary Schools. Last Thursday, I visited two impressive Catholic schools in Farnborough, both primary schools and [...]

  • Centenary Celebrations Light Up Winchester
    03/02/2026

    St Peter’s Church in Winchester officially launched its centenary celebrations last night with a stunning light show that lit up the church inside and out. The opening event, titled Light [...]

  • Catholic Young Writer and Artist Awards 2026
    29/01/2026

    Calling all young people! Entries are now open for the 2026 Catholic Young Writer Award and Catholic Young Artist Award. The theme for the 2026 Catholic Young Writer Award is [...]

  • Launching the Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes 2026
    27/01/2026

    The Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth is delighted to announce its annual pilgrimage to Lourdes, taking place from Monday 6th July to Friday 10th July, departing from London Heathrow Airport. Bishop [...]

  • Call For New Members of the Portsmouth Bamenda Committee
    26/01/2026

    The Portsmouth Bamenda Committee supports the link between Portsmouth Diocese and the Archdiocese of Bamenda which was established over 50 years ago. Members of the committee work with counterparts in [...]

  • A Postcard from Malta: Carrying Faith Across the Sea
    22/01/2026

    Angela Camilleri was until recently a parishioner at Christ the King Reading for over forty years. She has recently relocated from Reading to the Mediterranean island of Malta and shares [...]

  • Bishop Philip visits The Marist
    20/01/2026

    Bishop Philip writes about his visit to The Marist, Ascot Last Thursday, I made a visitation of the Marist school in Ascot, an independent Catholic girls’ school that offers education [...]

  • Supporting World Leprosy Day
    16/01/2026

    This Sunday, parishes across the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth are being invited to support a leading Catholic charity’s mission to eradicate leprosy. St Francis Leprosy Guild (SFLG), the UK’s Catholic [...]

  • A Century of Light: St Peter’s Winchester Celebrates 100 Years
    16/01/2026

    St Peter’s Church in Winchester warmly invites people of all faiths and none to experience the building transformed into a place of beauty, hope and wonder. Through illuminations, live music, [...]

  • Columbans launch schools competition (closing date 14 February)
    05/01/2026

    The Columbans in Britain have launched their next Schools Competition 2025/26, which has the theme: Becoming a refugee is never a choice. But how we respond is.” It is a [...]

  • St Mary’s Primary School, Maidenhead perform at Windsor Castle
    09/04/2026

    On Monday 8th December, St Mary's Catholic Primary School in Maidenhead Lower Junior Choir, had the opportunity to perform at Windsor Castle for all the visitors. The children were supported [...]

  • Come and work in our Catholic schools!
    09/04/2026

    Are you a Catholic currently teaching in a non-Catholic school? Have you considered applying for a post in one of our schools but are unsure how they are different and [...]

12Next
Get in Touch

communications@portsmouthdiocese.org.uk

Diocesan Office,
St Edmund House,
Bishop Crispian Way,
Portsmouth
PO1 3QA

  • Contact Us
  • Careers
  • Support our Work
  • Parish Pages
DiocesanCrest trans nospace
DiocesanCrest trans nospace
Donate

© 2026 Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth|Registration number: England Registered Charity No. 1199568 Jersey Registered Charity No. 457 and Guernsey Registered Charity No.CH263

Privacy Notice | Cookies Policy

 

Page load link
Accessibility
Accessibility modes
Epilepsy Safe Mode
Dampens color and removes blinks
This mode enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
Visually Impaired Mode
Improves website's visuals
This mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
Cognitive Disability Mode
Helps to focus on specific content
This mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
ADHD Friendly Mode
Reduces distractions and improve focus
This mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
Blindness Mode
Allows using the site with your screen-reader
This mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
Online Dictionary
    Readable Experience
    Content Scaling
    Default
    Text Magnifier
    Readable Font
    Dyslexia Friendly
    Highlight Titles
    Highlight Links
    Font Sizing
    Default
    Line Height
    Default
    Letter Spacing
    Default
    Left Aligned
    Center Aligned
    Right Aligned
    Visually Pleasing Experience
    Dark Contrast
    Light Contrast
    Monochrome
    High Contrast
    High Saturation
    Low Saturation
    Adjust Text Colors
    Adjust Title Colors
    Adjust Background Colors
    Easy Orientation
    Mute Sounds
    Hide Images
    Hide Emoji
    Reading Guide
    Stop Animations
    Reading Mask
    Highlight Hover
    Highlight Focus
    Big Dark Cursor
    Big Light Cursor
    Cognitive Reading
    Virtual Keyboard
    Navigation Keys
    Voice Navigation

    Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth

    Accessibility Statement

    • portsmouthdiocese.org.uk
    • 10/04/2026

    Compliance status

    We firmly believe that the internet should be available and accessible to anyone, and are committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability.

    To fulfill this, we aim to adhere as strictly as possible to the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.1 (WCAG 2.1) at the AA level. These guidelines explain how to make web content accessible to people with a wide array of disabilities. Complying with those guidelines helps us ensure that the website is accessible to all people: blind people, people with motor impairments, visual impairment, cognitive disabilities, and more.

    This website utilizes various technologies that are meant to make it as accessible as possible at all times. We utilize an accessibility interface that allows persons with specific disabilities to adjust the website’s UI (user interface) and design it to their personal needs.

    Additionally, the website utilizes an AI-based application that runs in the background and optimizes its accessibility level constantly. This application remediates the website’s HTML, adapts Its functionality and behavior for screen-readers used by the blind users, and for keyboard functions used by individuals with motor impairments.

    If you’ve found a malfunction or have ideas for improvement, we’ll be happy to hear from you. You can reach out to the website’s operators by using the following email

    Screen-reader and keyboard navigation

    Our website implements the ARIA attributes (Accessible Rich Internet Applications) technique, alongside various different behavioral changes, to ensure blind users visiting with screen-readers are able to read, comprehend, and enjoy the website’s functions. As soon as a user with a screen-reader enters your site, they immediately receive a prompt to enter the Screen-Reader Profile so they can browse and operate your site effectively. Here’s how our website covers some of the most important screen-reader requirements, alongside console screenshots of code examples:

    1. Screen-reader optimization: we run a background process that learns the website’s components from top to bottom, to ensure ongoing compliance even when updating the website. In this process, we provide screen-readers with meaningful data using the ARIA set of attributes. For example, we provide accurate form labels; descriptions for actionable icons (social media icons, search icons, cart icons, etc.); validation guidance for form inputs; element roles such as buttons, menus, modal dialogues (popups), and others. Additionally, the background process scans all the website’s images and provides an accurate and meaningful image-object-recognition-based description as an ALT (alternate text) tag for images that are not described. It will also extract texts that are embedded within the image, using an OCR (optical character recognition) technology. To turn on screen-reader adjustments at any time, users need only to press the Alt+1 keyboard combination. Screen-reader users also get automatic announcements to turn the Screen-reader mode on as soon as they enter the website.

      These adjustments are compatible with all popular screen readers, including JAWS and NVDA.

    2. Keyboard navigation optimization: The background process also adjusts the website’s HTML, and adds various behaviors using JavaScript code to make the website operable by the keyboard. This includes the ability to navigate the website using the Tab and Shift+Tab keys, operate dropdowns with the arrow keys, close them with Esc, trigger buttons and links using the Enter key, navigate between radio and checkbox elements using the arrow keys, and fill them in with the Spacebar or Enter key.Additionally, keyboard users will find quick-navigation and content-skip menus, available at any time by clicking Alt+1, or as the first elements of the site while navigating with the keyboard. The background process also handles triggered popups by moving the keyboard focus towards them as soon as they appear, and not allow the focus drift outside it.

      Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Disability profiles supported in our website

    • Epilepsy Safe Mode: this profile enables people with epilepsy to use the website safely by eliminating the risk of seizures that result from flashing or blinking animations and risky color combinations.
    • Visually Impaired Mode: this mode adjusts the website for the convenience of users with visual impairments such as Degrading Eyesight, Tunnel Vision, Cataract, Glaucoma, and others.
    • Cognitive Disability Mode: this mode provides different assistive options to help users with cognitive impairments such as Dyslexia, Autism, CVA, and others, to focus on the essential elements of the website more easily.
    • ADHD Friendly Mode: this mode helps users with ADHD and Neurodevelopmental disorders to read, browse, and focus on the main website elements more easily while significantly reducing distractions.
    • Blindness Mode: this mode configures the website to be compatible with screen-readers such as JAWS, NVDA, VoiceOver, and TalkBack. A screen-reader is software for blind users that is installed on a computer and smartphone, and websites must be compatible with it.
    • Keyboard Navigation Profile (Motor-Impaired): this profile enables motor-impaired persons to operate the website using the keyboard Tab, Shift+Tab, and the Enter keys. Users can also use shortcuts such as “M” (menus), “H” (headings), “F” (forms), “B” (buttons), and “G” (graphics) to jump to specific elements.

    Additional UI, design, and readability adjustments

    1. Font adjustments – users, can increase and decrease its size, change its family (type), adjust the spacing, alignment, line height, and more.
    2. Color adjustments – users can select various color contrast profiles such as light, dark, inverted, and monochrome. Additionally, users can swap color schemes of titles, texts, and backgrounds, with over seven different coloring options.
    3. Animations – person with epilepsy can stop all running animations with the click of a button. Animations controlled by the interface include videos, GIFs, and CSS flashing transitions.
    4. Content highlighting – users can choose to emphasize important elements such as links and titles. They can also choose to highlight focused or hovered elements only.
    5. Audio muting – users with hearing devices may experience headaches or other issues due to automatic audio playing. This option lets users mute the entire website instantly.
    6. Cognitive disorders – we utilize a search engine that is linked to Wikipedia and Wiktionary, allowing people with cognitive disorders to decipher meanings of phrases, initials, slang, and others.
    7. Additional functions – we provide users the option to change cursor color and size, use a printing mode, enable a virtual keyboard, and many other functions.

    Browser and assistive technology compatibility

    We aim to support the widest array of browsers and assistive technologies as possible, so our users can choose the best fitting tools for them, with as few limitations as possible. Therefore, we have worked very hard to be able to support all major systems that comprise over 95% of the user market share including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Opera and Microsoft Edge, JAWS and NVDA (screen readers).

    Notes, comments, and feedback

    Despite our very best efforts to allow anybody to adjust the website to their needs. There may still be pages or sections that are not fully accessible, are in the process of becoming accessible, or are lacking an adequate technological solution to make them accessible. Still, we are continually improving our accessibility, adding, updating and improving its options and features, and developing and adopting new technologies. All this is meant to reach the optimal level of accessibility, following technological advancements. For any assistance, please reach out to

    To make this site work properly, we sometimes place small data files called cookies on your device. You can change your option at any time. Read more
    Accept All
    Cookies Settings
    Cookie Box Settings
    Cookie Box Settings
    Go to Top