The Catholic Church in Canada is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and the Canadian Bishops Conference. It has the largest number of followers of a religion in Canada with 46% of Canadians (13,070,000 as of 2008) baptized as Catholics. There are 72 dioceses and about 8,000 priests in Canada.
Catholicism arrived in Canada in 1534, when Jacques Cartier planted a cross at Gaspe. In 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded the first Catholic colony in Quebec City. Later, in 1611, he established a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal, which later became a Catholic colony for trade and missionary activity.
Some important Catholic sites in Montreal are Notre-Dame Basilica, Saint Joseph's Oratory, Blessed Brother Andre's chapel, and Marie-Reine-du-Monde. In Quebec, Notre Dames des Victoires, Notre-Dame de Quebec Cathedral and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, Quebec.
In Nova Scotia, St. Francis Xavier University, a Scot Catholic university associated with the Antigonish Movement and the highland games.
Within Canada the hierarchy consists of:
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There is also a Ukrainianan Greek Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg, which has suffragan dioceses in Edmonton, New Westminster, Saskatoon, and Toronto.
There are also three other eparchies in Canada:
There is also a Military Ordinariate of Canada for Canadian military personnel.
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