The Structure of Catholicism in Canada

From those early days of the Archdiocese of Québec (1659) and the two Suffragans (1819), the structures of Holy Mother Church in Canada have developed into the normal structures of a National Hierarchy, Ecclesiastical Provinces (17), and Sui Generis Jurisdictions (7).

The following Ecclesiastical Provinces of Canada (Archdioceses: Suffragans)

Edmonton: Calgary, Saint Paul in Alberta
Gatineau: Amos, Mont-Laurier, Rouyn-Noranda
Grouard-McLennan: Mackenzie-Fort Smith, Whitehorse
Halifax-Yarmouth: Antigonish, Charlottetown
Keewatin-Le Pas: Churchill-Baie d’Hudson, Moosonee
Kingston: Alexandria-Cornwall, Peterborough, Sault Sainte Marie
Moncton: Bathurst, Edmundston, Saint John, New Brunswick
Montréal: Joliette, Saint-Jean-Longueuil, Saint-Jérôme, Valleyfield
Ottawa: Hearst, Pembroke, Timmins
Québec: Chicoutimi, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pocatière, Trois Rivières
Regina: Prince-Albert, Saskatoon
Rimouski: Baie-Comeau, Gaspé
Saint John’s, Newfoundland: Corner Brook and Labrador, Grand Falls
Sherbrooke: Nicolet, Saint-Hyacinthe
Toronto: Hamilton, London, Saint Catharines, Thunder Bay
Vancouver: Kamloops, Nelson, Prince George, Victoria
Winnipeg (Ukrainian): Edmonton (Ukrainian) (Eparchy), New Westminster (Ukrainian) (Eparchy), Saskatoon (Ukrainian) (Eparchy), Toronto (Ukrainian) (Eparchy)

The Archdioceses of Saint-Boniface and Winnipeg are sui generis and there are also sui generis jusisdictions of Canadian Military Ordinariate and the Eastern Catholic sui generis Eparchies of Saint-Maron de Montréal (Maronite), Saint-Sauveur de Montréal (Melkite Greek), Saints Cyril and Methodius of Toronto (Slovakian), and Mar Addai of Toronto (Chaldean).

The 2001 Census found that 12.8 million Canadians, 43% of the population, identified themselves as Catholics. A survey conducted in 2000 found that outside of Québec, weekly Mass attendance was 32%, down from 75% in 1950, while in Québec, which accounts for about a quarter of the Catholics in Canada, the rate of weekly Mass attendance was 20%, down from 88% in 1950.

In the end of the 1960s, Canada had 21,191 Priests. In 2000, it had a mere 9,832.

Today, three Canadian Dioceses are vacant: Timmins, Alexandria-Cornwall, and Saint Paul in Alberta.

According to the Annuario Pontificio 2011, the three largest Dioceses in terms of numbers of Catholics are Toronto (1,931,000), Montréal (1,590,150), and Québec (1,040,690), which, between them have more than one third of the whole Catholic population of Canada.