This article needs additional citations for verification .(December 2015) |
Diocese of Saint Catharines Dioecesis Sanctae Catharinae | |
---|---|
Location | |
Country | Canada |
Ecclesiastical province | Toronto |
Population - Catholics | 160,000 (34.6%) |
Information | |
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Rite | Roman Rite |
Established | 22 November 1958 |
Cathedral | Cathedral of St. Catherine of Alexandria, Saint Catharines |
Patron saint | Saint Catherine of Alexandria |
Current leadership | |
Pope | Francis |
Bishop | Gerard Paul Bergie |
Metropolitan Archbishop | Francis Leo |
Bishops emeritus | John Aloysius O’Mara James Matthew Wingle |
Website | |
saintcd.com |
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Catharines (Latin : Dioecesis Sanctae Catharinae in Ontario) (erected 22 November 1958) is a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Toronto in St. Catharines, Ontario. It covers the municipalities of Niagara Region and Haldimand County.
The Diocese of St. Catharines underwent considerable change and consolidation from 1982 to 1997, in terms of episcopal leadership, spiritual renewal, the first ever lay diocesan congress, and Catholic secondary schools. Bishop John A. O'Mara made the congress the primary diocesan instrument to prepare local Catholics for the Great Jubilee in the year 2000. Priests and people have also celebrated many notable anniversaries and undertaken a number of church renovations and expansions, the most impressive among them being the wholesale restoration of the cathedral.
The founding bishop of the diocese, Most Rev. Thomas J. McCarthy, died on November 15, 1986. He had been bishop for twenty years, from 1958 to 1978, during which time he guided the local church through the many reforms in liturgy and governance brought about by the implementation of Vatican II.
Since 1982 Catholic secondary education in the diocese has experienced tremendous growth in the number of students and new schools. Added to the roster of high schools were St. Paul in Niagara Falls (1982); Holy Cross in St. Catharines, 1985; Lakeshore Catholic in Port Colborne (1988); St. Michael in Niagara Falls (1989); Monsignor Clancy in Thorold (1989); Blessed Trinity in Grimsby (1994); St. Francis and Ecole secondaire Jean Vanier (Saint-Jean Brebeuf) in St. Catharines (1995). Major renovations and expansion have been carried out at Lakeshore Catholic, St. Paul, Notre Dame, Denis Morris and Holy Cross.
The largest restoration project was the cathedral parish of St. Catherine of Alexandria. More than one million dollars was spent on the work, which included a new pipe organ, work on the foundation, and repairs to the bell tower. The diocese also renovated the former Church of the Resurrection on Merrittville Highway near Brock University for a diocesan pastoral centre. It houses the Chancery, the diocesan archives, the Marriage Tribunal, the Office of Religious Education, the diocesan newspaper and a pastoral/theological resource library.
The first Catholic church at St. Catharines was built to meet the spiritual needs of the Irish labourers who built the first Welland Canal which was opened in 1829. It was a wood structure on the same site as the present cathedral. On November 12, 1831, Bishop Alexander Macdonell of Kingston blessed and opened this church which was the first Roman Catholic Parish church to be built in the Niagara Peninsula. This first Catholic Church was burned down by an arsonist on August 23, 1842. Fortunately the second Welland Canal was being built between 1842–45 and thus there were once again many Irish labourers in the area. There was much sickness in the work camps and Dr. Constantine Lee, then Pastor at St. Catharines, contracted one of the diseases while ministering to the workers and died in the winter of 1842–43. Often there were delays in construction of the canal, so the Irish workers used their free time to build a new parish church. Father McDonagh laid the cornerstone on Ascension Day, May 25, 1843. The Irish Canal workers continued to build the church for the next two years — for which there is a commemorative stone in Latin, dated 1844, by the entrance to the church. Father McDonagh opened the new church, which was dedicated to St. Catherine of Alexandria on June 10, 1845. During the latter part of the nineteenth century many additions were made to the church to give it the structure it has now. In the post-Vatican II period its interior was updated somewhat to give the church the appearance that it has today. For almost a century the church was usually the seat of the Deanery of St. Catharines, the Dean residing at its Rectory. In 1945 it celebrated the centennial of the opening of the present church. On November 25, 1958, it became the Cathedral Church of the newly formed Diocese of St. Catharines.
The first crest was designed when the new Diocese of St. Catharines was established in 1958. This crest consisted of the Bishop's mitre, and the broken Catherine Wheel superimposed upon the Welland Canal. This was replaced by a second crest in 1983, which hoped to incorporate still more of the theological, historical and geographical features of the Diocese. The components of the new crest are: The crest is divided into left and right halves from top to bottom by the Welland Canal — portrayed in the crest by six links going from right to left, back and forth three times. The crest is divided into a top and bottom half by two wavy lines, representing the two major rivers in the St. Catharines Diocese — the Grand River to the left and the Welland river to the right. The blue background represents the sky and the rest and peace that only Heaven can give.
It symbolizes the desire of the Diocese for peace with its neighbours in the United States of America, as well as within the local Niagara Peninsula community, an area of Canada which has had more than its share of battles over the centuries.
In 1997, the Diocese of St. Catharines numbered about 150,000 Catholics, with about 50 parish and mission churches and served by some 100 priests. There were twenty religious communities of fathers, brothers, and sisters who ran a wide variety of educational, social, medical and charitable institutions within the Diocese. Catholic chaplains were also assigned to major religious and secular institutions. The Catholic community has contributed to all walks of life in the Niagara Peninsula over the years. In addition to their spiritual role, first as missionaries, then as chaplains and finally as parish priests, the clergy have taken a strong hand over the years in building up the institutional and spiritual life of the area with the help of religious communities. The laity over the years have served as explorers, traders, soldiers, farmers, canal builders, railroad workers and factory labourers. In addition to their spiritual and charitable contributions the laity have added immensely to the social, intellectual and cultural life of the Peninsula community.
The Niagara Peninsula is an area of land lying between the southwestern shore of Lake Ontario and the northeastern shore of Lake Erie, in Ontario, Canada. Technically an isthmus rather than a peninsula, it stretches from the Niagara River in the east to Hamilton, Ontario, in the west. The peninsula is located in the Golden Horseshoe region of Southern Ontario, and has a population of roughly 1,000,000 residents. The region directly across the Niagara River and Lake Erie in New York State is known as the Niagara Frontier.
The Diocese of London is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or diocese of the Catholic Church in Canada. It is a suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Toronto.
The Diocese of Albany is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory in eastern New York in the United States. Its mother church is the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Albany.
Niagara Centre is a federal electoral district in the Niagara Region of Ontario that has been represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1867 to 1988 and since 1997.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Marquette is an ecclesiastical territory of the Catholic Church, encompassing the Upper Peninsula region of Michigan in the United States. The diocese is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Detroit. Its cathedral is St. Peter Cathedral in Marquette, which replaced Holy Name of Mary Pro-Cathedral at Sault Ste. Marie.
The Diocese of Buffalo is a Latin Church diocese of the Catholic Church in Western New York in the United States. It is a suffragan diocese within the metropolitan province of the Archdiocese of New York.
William Hamilton Merritt was a businessman and politician in the Niagara Peninsula of Upper Canada in the early 19th century. Although he was born in the United States, his family was Loyalist and eventually settled in Upper Canada. Merritt fought in the War of 1812, was captured by the invading American forces, and held as a prisoner of war. After the war, he returned to the Niagara region and began a career in business. He was one of the founders of the Welland Canal. He was a supporter of the Abolitionist cause to end slavery in the U.S., and of the settlement of escaped slaves in St. Catharines.
The Diocese of Niagara is one of thirty regional divisions in the Anglican Church of Canada. The see city of the diocese is Hamilton, with the bishop's cathedra located at Christ's Church Cathedral on James Street North. Located within the ecclesiastical province of Ontario, it borders the Dioceses of Huron and Toronto. The area enclosed by the Diocese of Niagara includes much of the Golden Horseshoe, and moves north to include Erin and Orangeville as far as Shelburne. Moving sharply south, the boundary includes Mount Forest and widens, south-westerly to include Elora and Guelph. Skirting Brantford and the Territory of the Six Nations Confederacy, the line then travels, again, south-westerly to Jarvis and Lake Erie to include the entire Niagara Peninsula. Major urban centres within its borders are St. Catharines, Niagara Falls, Hamilton, Guelph, Oakville, Milton, Burlington, and Orangeville.
Thomas Jerome Welsh was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as auxiliary bishop of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia in Pennsylvania (1970-1974), as bishop of the Diocese of Arlington in Virginia (1974–1983) and as bishop of the Diocese of Allentown in Pennsylvania (1983–1997).
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Kingston is a Latin Church ecclesiastical jurisdiction or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in Canada that includes part of the federal Province of Ontario in southeastern Canada.
The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toronto is a Roman Catholic archdiocese that includes part of the province of Ontario. Its archbishop is also the ecclesiastical provincial for the dioceses of Hamilton, London, Saint Catharines, and Thunder Bay. The Archbishop is Francis Leo, appointed in February 2023.
The Diocese of Calgary is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Alberta, Canada. The Diocese of Calgary is a suffragan diocese of the metropolitan Archdiocese of Edmonton.
The Diocese of Parañaque is a diocese of the Latin Church of the Catholic Church in Metro Manila, Philippines which encompasses the cities of Parañaque, Las Piñas, and Muntinlupa. Previously belonging to the Archdiocese of Manila, the Ecclesiastical District of Parañaque was declared an independent diocese on December 7, 2002, by Pope John Paul II by virtue of the papal bull Ad Efficacius. The district bishop, Jesse Eugenio Mercado, also one of the auxiliary bishops of Manila, was designated as its first and only bishop and was formally installed on January 28, 2003.
The Archdiocese of Lipa is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese of the Catholic Church in the Philippines comprising the civil province of Batangas. Its cathedral is the Metropolitan Cathedral of St. Sebastian located in Lipa, Batangas. First created on April 10, 1910 from the Archdiocese of Manila, the diocese was elevated into its present status on June 20, 1972. Today, the Archdiocese of Lipa's ecclesiastical province covers Batangas and the suffragan territories in the civil provinces of Quezon, Marinduque, and Aurora. The archdiocese itself is divided into 14 vicariates forane further comprising a total of 65 parishes.
The Diocese of Hamilton is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or diocese of the Catholic Church in Canada. It is a suffragan diocese in the ecclesiastical province of the metropolitan Archdiocese in Toronto.
Gerald Francis O'Keefe was a 20th-century bishop of the Catholic Church in the United States. He served as auxiliary bishop for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul in the state of Minnesota from 1961 to 1966 and bishop of the Diocese of Davenport in the state of Iowa from 1966 to 1993.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Thunder Bay is a Latin suffragan in the ecclesiastical province of the Metropolitan Archdiocese of Toronto, in Ontario, Canada.
Loras Joseph Watters was an American bishop of the Catholic Church. He served as an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of Dubuque from 1965 to 1969, and as the fifth Bishop of Winona from 1969 to 1986.
Michael Joseph Murphy was an American prelate of the Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Erie, Pennsylvania, from 1982 to 1990.
Ramon Bejarano is an American prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, serving as auxiliary bishop for the Diocese of San Diego in California since 2020.