Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Keewatin–Le Pas

Archdiocese of Keewatin–Le Pas

Archidioecesis Kivotina–Passitana
Location
Country Canada
Ecclesiastical provinceKeewatin–Le Pas
Statistics
Population
- Catholics
(as of 2006)
41,869 (40.4%)
Parishes49
Information
DenominationCatholic
Sui iuris churchLatin Church
RiteRoman Rite
Established4 March 1910
CathedralOur Lady of the Sacred Heart Cathedral
Secular priests3
Current leadership
PopeFrancis
ArchbishopMurray Chatlain
Bishops emeritusSylvain Lavoie
Website
archdioceseofkeewatinlepas.ca

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Keewatin–Le Pas (Latin: Archidioecesis Kivotina–Passitana) is a Roman Catholic archdiocese that includes parts of the Provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Ontario and has the suffragan diocese of Churchill-Baie d'Hudson. The current archbishop is Murray Chatlain.

Prior to 2018, it included as suffragan dioceses the Diocese of Labrador City-Schefferville dissolved in 2007 and the Diocese of Moosonee dissolved in 2018.

As of 2006, the archdiocese contains 49 parishes, 3 active diocesan priests, 15 religious priests, and 42,000 Catholics. It has 3 religious nuns.

The seat of the diocese is at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Cathedral in The Pas.[1]

History

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This largely barren land of lakes and forests, possessing timber and mineral resources but sparsely inhabited by First Nations, Métis and a few Europeans, was first visited by pioneer missionaries in the nineteenth century, when Norbert Provencher, Bishop of St. Boniface, sent Jean-Baptiste Thibault to Île-à-la-Crosse (1845), Louis-Francois Richer Lafleche (later Bishop of Three Rivers) to explore the Cumberland district (1846) and Alexandre-Antonin Taché (later Archbishop of St. Boniface), to join Lafleche at Ile-à-la-Crosse (1846), and thence visit Reindeer Lake (1847).[2] These and surrounding missions were subsequently served by Oblates of the Manitoba or Alberta-Saskatchewan Provinces.

The Apostolic Vicariate of Keewatin (Latin: Vicariatus Apostolicus Keevatinensis) was a Roman Catholic missionary pre-diocesan jurisdiction in northern Canada which included the northern half of the Province of Saskatchewan, and was bounded on the north by the Arctic regions, on the south by the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface, on the east by the then Apostolic Vicariate of Temiskaming,[3] and on the west by the Diocese of St Albert and the then Apostolic Vicariate of Athabasca.

Prominent among these since 1887 has been Ovide Charlebois[4] whose administrative capacities, proved during sixteen years' ministry at Fort Cumberland, led in 1900 to his nomination as Visitor of the Cumberland District Indian Missions, in 1903, to his appointment as director of Saint Michael's Indian Industrial School at Duck Lake (Saskatchewan), and in 1910 to his preconization as titular Bishop of Berenice and Vicar Apostolic of Keewatin, with residence at The Pas.

There were in the vicariate in the early 20th century 15 Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate, 8 Oblate Brothers of Mary Immaculate, 12 Grey Nuns (Montreal), 16 Oblate Sisters of the Sacred Heart and Mary Immaculate (St. Boniface), 4 more Grey Nuns (St. Hyacinth), 10 churches with 16 out-stations; 11,000 Indians, Dene, Cree and Inuit, of whom 7000 were Catholics and 5000 non-Catholics or pagans (chiefly Inuit religion). Indian boarding schools at Norway House (Oblate Sisters, 20 pupils), Beauval Residential School at Lac La Plonge [Grey Nuns (Montreal), 50 pupils], a general hospital at Le Pas [Grey Nuns (St. Hyacinth), 25 beds], a Catholic (French-English) school at Le Pas [Grey Nuns (St. Hyacinth)].

It was renamed and promoted Metropolitan See of Keewatin-Le Pas in 1967; its archbishop now has an ecclesiastical province with two suffragan bishops in Churchill-Baie d'Hudson and Moosonee; the third, Labrador City-Schefferville, was suppressed in 2007.

Bishops

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Diocesan bishops

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The following is a list of the bishops and archbishops of Keewatin-Le Pas and their terms of service:

  • Ovide Charlebois, O.M.I. (1910–1933)
  • Martin Giuseppe Onorio LeJeunesse, O.M.I. (1933–1954)
  • Paul Dumouchel, O.M.I. (1955–1986)
  • Peter Alfred Sutton, O.M.I. (1986–2006)
  • Sylvain Lavoie, O.M.I. (2006–2012)
  • Murray Chatlain (2012–present)

Coadjutor bishops

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See also

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References

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  1. ^ John Barker (December 8, 2012). "Pope Benedict XVI names Most Rev. Murray Chatlain as archbishop-elect of Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas". Thompson Citizen. Retrieved June 13, 2013.
  2. ^  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainDaniel, J. E. (1913). "Vicariate Apostolic of Keewatin". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 16. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  3. ^ "Vicariate Apostolic of Temiskaming". Archived from the original on 2015-09-29. Retrieved 2014-08-29.
  4. ^ "Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas". Retrieved 2014-08-29.
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53°49′40″N 101°15′07″W / 53.8279°N 101.2520°W / 53.8279; -101.2520