A
Brief History
of the
Diocese of St. Catharines |
By Rev. EDWARD
JACKMAN, o.p. Roman Catholic Historian
First Edition: 1983, Second Edition: 1997
The Most
Reverend John Aloysius O'mara, D.D.
Third Bishop Of St. Catharines, Installed On April 13, 1994
At Cathedral Of St. Catherine Of Alexandria
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INDEX
FOREWORD
This short history of the Roman Catholic Diocese of St. Catharines was
written in 1982 to meet the needs of three events: 1) the 4th Annual
Niagara Peninsula History Conference held at Brock University, St.
Catharines, Ontario, Canada, on Saturday, April 17, 1982, on the
subject of "Religion and Churches in the Niagara Peninsula" at which
this paper was first delivered: 2) the sesquicentennial (I5Oth) celebrations
of the Cathedral of St. Catherine which were held throughout the
year 1982: 3) in preparation for the 25th anniversary celebrations
of the Diocese of St. Catharines, 1958-1983.
I would particularly like to
thank the Bishop of St. Catharines, the Most Rev. Thomas
B. Fulton, for his kind invitation to research the history
of his Diocese in general and to give this paper in particular.
My gratitude also to Father, now Msgr., Mel J. Shaefer, then
Rector of the Cathedral, and his staff who were always most
generous in their hospitality whenever I visited St. Catharines.
I would also like to thank the library staff at the central
St. Catharines Library and at Brock University for their
bibliographical help. Above all I would like to thank Mrs.
Karen Booth, Michael Power, Wayne Kirkpatrick, Brian and
Virginia O'Sullivan, who as research assistants were able
to put before me a wealth of historic material, some of it
long forgotten. Their findings have added so much interest
and even excitement to this historical project. We all owe
a deep debt of gratitude to these largely unknown heroes
of contemporary historiography.
INTRODUCTION
The scope of this short history is cursory and factual as it tries to
give a fair overview of the most important events in the history
of the Diocese of St. Catharines in a quick, point-by-point manner.
There is no time to go into any event in great detail. Some filling
in of the gaps is thus left to the reader's imagination. However,
a certain extra emphasis has been given to the Diocese and to the
Cathedral in their own right in view of their anniversaries.
In general the history of the
Diocese of St. Catharines can be divided into four main periods
and each of these four main periods can in turn be sub-divided
into three smaller periods of time. Thus the history of the
Diocese could be said to have progressed through an even
dozen time periods, periods which become ever shorter as
we approach the present day.
The four main periods of time
would be: A) The French and British colonial period, 1615-1815;
B) The Irish period of settlement, 1815-1900; C ) The European
period of settlement, 1900- 1960; D) The contemporary period
as a Diocese unto itself, 1958 to the present. These time-frames
should not be considered so much as being imposed upon the
facts of history as flowing forth from them and thus giving
meaning to events which might otherwise not be fully understood
if seen out of context.
THE
AREA OF THE DIOCESE OF ST. CATHARINES
Geographically the territory of
the Diocese of St. Catharines, the subject of this paper, consists of
the entirety of the Region of Niagara (the former counties of Lincoln
and Welland) and all the area of the former county of Haldimand (now
the eastern half of the Region of Haldimand-Norfolk). Thus the Diocese
of St. Catharines occupies the same area as what is generally considered
to be the full extent of the Niagara Peninsula.
Ecclesiastically it has been
a part of four other Canadian Dioceses before it became a
Diocese in its own right on November 25, 1958. It was first
under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec City from
1674 until 1826 when it became part of the Diocese of Kingston
which then embraced all of Upper Canada (now Ontario). In
1841 it became part of the Diocese of Toronto and in 1856
its territory was divided with Lincoln and Welland counties
remaining in the Toronto Diocese and Haldimand going to the
newly formed Diocese of Hamilton. Only in 1958 were the parts
brought back together again to form the new Diocese of St.
Catharines. Whether one passes through the Toronto or Hamilton
episcopal lineage of the Diocese, the present Ordinary of
St. Catharines, Bishop Fulton, is the 24th Bishop in Canada
to rule over the Niagara Peninsula area. Bishop O'Mara is
thus the 25th.
The question is often asked
why Lincoln and Welland counties remained attached to the
Toronto Diocese across Lake Ontario after the 1856 split
of the Dioceses and not to the Hamilton Diocese with which
it was contiguous. In addition to reasons of ease of water
transport at that time and the fact that the Bishops of Toronto
seemed to have a special predilection for the Niagara area,
the best reason appears that Toronto needed the then ( 1856)
relatively large Catholic population of Lincoln and Welland
counties: otherwise, its suffragan sees of Hamilton and London
would actually have had more Catholics than Toronto.
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