Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Catharines
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Diocese of Saint Catharines Dioecesis Sanctae Catharinae in Ontario |
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|---|---|
| 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 | Thomas Christopher Collins |
| 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.
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 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.
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