It is hoped Archbishop Peter Smith is winning back confidence

Journalist John O'Sullivan, who has covered Catholic events in Wales for more than 40 years, looks at the recent history of the faith in Wales.

There were only three Catholics in Cardiff when the first post-Reformation Mass was said in what was then little more than a village in the early 1820s.

But by the end of the 19th century Catholicism was flourishing in south and west Wales and it was developing in the north and the rural areas.

Today there are more than 100,000 Catholics in Wales.

Faced with a shortage of priests, a number of parishes have been closed or merged but attendance at Sunday Masses is stable after a fall-away of worshippers over the past decades.

Welsh-language masses are now commonplace in all parts of Wales and a leader in this field is the Port Talbot-born Bishop Edwin Regan, of Wrexham.

The groundwork was done before his retirement by Bishop Daniel Mullins, a Welsh-speaking Irishman.

Sharing the faith

And Bishop Mark Jabale, a former Abbot of Belmont, Herefordshire, now leads the Swansea-based Menevia Diocese.

Catholic schools play an important part in the life of the Church where lay people now have a greater role than at any time in history.

The University Chaplaincies also have a key role and one only has to attend Sunday Mass at the Chaplaincy in Cardiff to share the faith with people from all the world.

Newtown, Cardiff's Little Ireland, was demolished in the 1960s, but the spirit of this suburb of Cardiff lives on.

A �100,000 memorial garden was opened there in March 2005 by First Minister Rhodri Morgan and singer Charlotte Church.

However, the Catholic Church in Wales has been rocked in recent years with headline-grabbing cases.

In 2001, Archbishop John Ward retired through ill-health, months after being accused of ignoring warnings about the paedophile activities of two priests in the diocese of Cardiff.

The seriousness of the situation led to the Pope's envoy being sent to Wales on a fact-finding mission.

In appointing the new Archbishop of Cardiff, Peter Smith, the church recognised the need to win back confidence.

Archbishop Smith had spearheaded the fight against child abuse in Britain. Since his arrival, he has healed some of the hurt in the church.