Sowing the Seeds of Catholicism in Canada

The seeds of the Catholic Faith in Canada were sown by France, eldest daughter of the Church. So in a sense Canada is the senior Granddaughter of Our Holy Mother the Church. Even before the arrival of Jacques Cartier, French sailors had landed and, as good sons of the Church, had consacrated the lands of Canada to God and to His Blessed Mother. The first Mass on Canada's shores was celebrated on 7th July, 1534 by the Chaplain to the Cartier expedition. The foundation of the settlements at Sainte-Croix and Annapolis (Port Royal) was the first permanent presence of Holy Mother Church in Canada.

The first serious missionary endeavours began with the foundation of Québec by Samuel de Champlain. Franciscans (1615), Jesuits (1625), the Ursuline Nuns (1640), the Congregation of Notre Dame (1653) and Suplicians (1657) were the early pioneers.

Until 1659, Canada, known as New France, was a vicarate of the Archdiocese of Rouen. In that year, Pope Alexander VII Chigi appointed François de Montmorency-Laval as Vicar Apostolic of New France. In 1674 Pope Clement X Altieri created him first Bishop of Québec, the first Diocese of Canada.

1763 was a year of potential disaster. By the Treaty of Paris, Angican English forces occupied New France. The Protestant English proposed to substitute an Anglican for a Catholic Hierarchy, as had been done in England and Ireland two centuries earlier - in violation of the Treaty of Paris, which had confirmed the liberty of Holy Mother Church in New France. The English authorities proceeded to protestantize education and to interfere in the nomination of Bishops and insisted upon the title of Superintendent of Catholic Worship for Catholic Bishops, reserving the title to their own Anglican pretenders. They forbade the Franciscans, Jesuits and Suplicians to accept novices. Only the latter retained their property in the general confiscation of 1774. Providence has strange ways and it was the wave of refugees from the French Rebellion that swelled the diminishing ranks of the Clergy of Canada. However, this period of open persecution was not to end until 1819, with the elevation of the See of Québec to an Archdiocese, with Suffragan Vicarates Apostolic of Upper Canada (based upon the Diocese of Kingston) and Nova Scotia (based upon the Archdiocese of Halifax).