Tiny Archdioceses and Dioceses in Canada

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catholic03

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Hello

I have been doing some research on the Church in Canada as I am thinking of moving there, as I am entitled to Canadian citizenship and passport.

I have found that around Canada, especially in Quebec and Alberta, dioceses and even archdioceses are sometimes found in tiny towns. For example, the Archdiocese of Grouard–McLennan in Alberta has its cathedral in the town of McLennan, with 701 people. This is an Archdiocese!

Also, the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas has its cathedral in the town of The Pas, with only 5,000 people. The Diocese of St Paul has its cathedral in a town of the same name with less than 6000 people.

Many dioceses in Canada, seem to be headquartered in towns with only a few thousand people. I think it is amazing that the Church is present in so many different areas in Canada. Here in New Zealand, we have 4.5 million people, only one Archdiocese and 5 dioceses. There are cities in NZ with 130,000 people that are part of a diocese headquartered in another city.

Does anyone know why this is in Canada? Why there are dioceses and archdioceses in tiny towns?

Thanks.
 
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Because Canada is huge and many parts of it are sparsely populated. At some point, geographical distance creates a need for a separate diocese or archdiocese because the distances between populated places just become too big for the bishop or archbishop to reasonably deal with.

NZ is relatively small geographically, and only 12 percent of its population is Catholic. Makes sense to me to have it just be one Archdiocese and five dioceses.
 
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It does make sense now, especially when you think about the bishop having to go around for confirmations, meeting pastors and parishioners etc.

Also, Quebec is very Catholic because of the French influence, so they have many dioceses there.
 
Yes, that’s true. Quebec is also very populated. I was just reading about someone from there who was like the 23rd child in his family. That’s extreme but in the past they had these huge Catholic families.
 
I read that virtually everyone is Quebec attended Mass until the ‘Quiet Revolution’ of the 1960s, which turned Quebec secular. I probably will move to Canada, providing I can get my citizenship, and if so it is good to learn about the situation of the Church there.

I don’t think I’ll be living in a town in the middle of nowhere, though! I can’t speak French either, so it will probably be Vancouver, Toronto etc.
 
I am sure you will enjoy Vancouver or Toronto. Toronto is very clean and nice. Quebec can be a little bit iffy if you do not speak French. My grandmother was Canadian and we used to go to Ontario frequently, it was a pleasant place. Parts of it are currently more economically run down than they were when we used to go, but I presume you will go to some area with jobs.
 
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My grandparents emigrated to Canada (they were from England) and my mother was born there, so I would like to think I already have a connection. I have heard it is very developed, clean, ethnically diverse etc. I reminds me quite a lot of NZ, but of course it has about 10 times as many people!

With regards to jobs, I’ll probably be going to university here in NZ, so I hope it will be an easy transition for the Law Degree I hope to have. However, because Canada and NZ are both former British colonies, sharing Queen Elizabeth as head of state and have the same political system, it should be fine.
 
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catholic03 said:
It does make sense now, especially when you think about the bishop having to go around for confirmations, meeting pastors and parishioners etc.

Also, Quebec is very Catholic because of the French influence, so they have many dioceses there.
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Only in name. Quebec is probably the most secularized of all the provinces. You will likely come across more solid Catholics in Alberta.

Quebec, however has a nice monastery, St. Benoit du Lac.
 
For what it’s worth, several dioceses in the United States have their see-cities in fairly small towns, for geographical and historical reasons:

Gaylord, Michigan
Gallup, New Mexico
Steubenville, Ohio
Wheeling, West Virginia
Altoona, Pennsylvania

Those are just the first ones that come to mind, there are others. Gaylord is probably the smallest diocesan see-city in the United States (population ca. 3700, and that is not a typo). Some of these cities were once more populous and regionally prominent than they are now. Some of them have co-cathedrals in other cities (Wheeling-Charleston, Altoona-Johnstown), but those cities are pretty small themselves. Charleston appears far bigger than it actually is, very impressive skyline, but it, too, has declined greatly in population due to economic decline.
 
Here in New Zealand, we don’t have any small dioceses, except for one located in a small associated state:

The settlements with dioceses are:

Wellington, New Zealand (pop. 420,000) - Archdiocese of Wellington.
Auckland, New Zealand (pop. 1.6 million) - Diocese of Auckland.
Christchurch, New Zealand (pop. 400,000) - Diocese of Christchurch.
Hamilton, New Zealand (pop. 240,000) - Diocese of Hamilton.
Palmerston North, New Zealand (pop. 90,000) - Diocese of Palmerston North.
Dunedin, New Zealand (pop. 130,000) - Diocese of Dunedin.

It’s interesting that our only Archdiocese and Cardinal-Archbishop are located in our 2nd largest city.

We also have the Diocese of Rarotonga in the Cook Islands, which is technically part of NZ, a bit like Puerto Rico’s situation in the US. This Diocese covers an area with only 11,000 people.
 
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As was stated above, Quebec was probably one of the most Roman Catholic place on earth… Until the 60s. Today it is very much secularized, and most churches are almost completely composed of elderly people. There are exceptions. I always find it funny when someone says that it’s an OK place if you don’t mind the french… Think of someone saying the United States is ok if you don’t mind the English.

That being said, The Catholic church in Quebec is in a rough spot. Very much liberal and the majority of their budget is usually spent to maintain\upkeep old church building so they don’t fall apart.
 
Specifically, Canada is more than 37 times the size of New Zealand, although its population is less than 8 times greater.
catholic03 said:
I have heard it is very developed, clean, ethnically diverse etc.
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Toronto and Vancouver are very ethnically diverse. In both cities, a majority of the population are non-European. Our northern neighbor is a really great country. I have always liked it a lot there when I have visited.

If you want to study law in Canada I assume you would want to go to Toronto? However, I do think it sounds interesting to do one of the programs where you study Canadian and US law and get two degrees. You can do that at Windsor/Detroit, which constitute the largest transborder agglomeration on the US-Canadian border. (I’m not a lawyer - I only know about this because I have a social work colleague who was able to gain experience on both sides of the border while studying in Detroit.)
 
Tis_Bearself explained the reason why so many and so small. I find it interesting to use catholic-hierarchy.org to try to figure out how some dioceses came to be and how they ended up being suffragan of far-flung Archdioceses. When I came to this parish we were part of a diocese that comprised parishes in two provinces. We were suffragan of the Keewatin-LePas Archdiocese, located two provinces and thousands of kilometers away. Our common attibute? We’re “up North”.

About 12 years ago our diocese was suppressed and the territory was divided between 3 different dioceses. The territory in Quebec was divided between two dioceses in that province; the Newfoundland part of the territory was added to the St. George’s Diocese and the diocese was renamed “Diocese of Corner Brook and Labrador”. Our diocesan see is now a 12 hour drive + a ferry ride away. It’s a huge territory but with a very small population.
 
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