The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Keewatin–Le Pas ( la, Archidioecesis Kivotina–Passitana) is a Roman Catholic

archdiocese In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

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 Murray Chatlain (born January 19, 1963) is a Canadian prelate of the Roman Catholic Church, who (as of 2012) serves as Archbishop of Keewatin-Le Pas. Biography Murray Chatlain was born on January 19, 1963, in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. He compl ...

. 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.

History

This largely barren land of lakes and forests, possessing timber and mineral resources but sparsely inhabited by First Nations,

Métis The Métis ( ; Canadian ) are Indigenous peoples who inhabit Canada's three Prairie Provinces, as well as parts of British Columbia, the Northwest Territories, and the Northern United States. They have a shared history and culture which derives ...

and a few Europeans, was first visited by pioneer missionaries in the nineteenth century, when Norbert Provencher, Bishop of

St. Boniface Boniface, OSB ( la, Bonifatius; 675 – 5 June 754) was an English Benedictine monk and leading figure in the Anglo-Saxon mission to the Germanic parts of the Frankish Empire during the eighth century. He organised significant foundations of ...

, sent

Jean-Baptiste Thibault Jean-Baptiste Thibault (14 December 1810 – 4 April 1879) was a Roman Catholic priest and missionary noted for his role in negotiating on behalf of the Government of Canada during the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870. He also established the fir ...

to Île-à-la-Crosse (1845), Louis-Francois Richer Lafleche (later Bishop of Three Rivers) to explore the

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is a historic county in the far North West England. It covers part of the Lake District as well as the north Pennines and Solway Firth coast. Cumberland had an administrative function from the 12th century until 1974. From 19 ...

district (1846) and

Alexandre-Antonin Taché Alexandre-Antonin Taché, O.M.I., (23 July 1823 – 22 June 1894) was a Canadian Roman Catholic priest, missionary of the Oblate order, author, and the first Archbishop of Saint Boniface in Manitoba, Canada. Early life Alexandre-Antonin Tac ...

(later Archbishop of St. Boniface), to join Lafleche at Ile-à-la-Crosse (1846), and thence visit Reindeer Lake (1847). These and surrounding missions were subsequently served by Oblates of the Manitoba or Alberta-Saskatchewan Provinces. The Apostolic Vicariate of Keewatin ( la, 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 The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface ( la, Archidioecesis Sancti Bonifacii) is a Latin archdiocese in part of the civil Province of Manitoba in Canada. Despite having no suffragan dioceses, the archdiocese is nominally metropolitan a ...

, on the east by the then Apostolic Vicariate of Temiskaming, and on the west by the

Diocese of St Albert The Archdiocese of Edmonton ( la, Archidioecesis Edmontonensis) is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or archdiocese in the Canadian civil province of Alberta. The archbishop's cathedral see is located in St. Joseph Cathedral, a minor basil ...

and the then Apostolic Vicariate of Athabasca. Prominent among these since 1887 has been Ovide Charlebois whose administrative capacities, proved during sixteen years' ministry at

Fort Cumberland A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

, led in 1900 to his nomination as

Visitor A visitor, in English and Welsh law and history, is an overseer of an autonomous ecclesiastical or eleemosynary institution, often a charitable institution set up for the perpetual distribution of the founder's alms and bounty, who can interve ...

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 Berenice ( grc, Βερενίκη, ''Bereníkē'') is the Ancient Macedonian form of the Attic Greek name ''Pherenikē'', which means "bearer of victory" . Berenika, priestess of Demeter in Lete ca. 350 BC, is the oldest epigraphical evidence. Th ...

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 The Sisters of Charity of Montreal, formerly called The Sisters of Charity of the Hôpital Général of Montreal and more commonly known as the Grey Nuns of Montreal, is a Canadian religious institute of Roman Catholic religious sisters, founde ...

(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 The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...

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 rey Nuns (Montreal), 50 pupils a general hospital at Le Pas rey Nuns (St. Hyacinth), 25 beds a Catholic (French-English) school at Le Pas rey 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 bishop A suffragan bishop is a type of bishop in some Christian denominations. In the Anglican Communion, a suffragan bishop is a bishop who is subordinate to a metropolitan bishop or diocesan bishop (bishop ordinary) and so is not normally jurisdiction ...

s in Churchill-Baie d'Hudson and

Moosonee Moosonee () is a town in northern Ontario, Canada, on the Moose River approximately south of James Bay. It is considered to be "the Gateway to the Arctic" and has Ontario's only saltwater port. Nearby on Moose Factory Island is the community of ...

; the third, Labrador City-Schefferville, was suppressed in 2007.

Bishops

Diocesan bishops

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) *

(2012–present)

Coadjutor bishops

* Martin Joseph-Honoré Lajeunesse, O.M.I. (1933), as Coadjutor Vicar Apostolic * Peter Alfred Sutton, O.M.I. (1986) * Sylvain Lavoie , O.M.I. (2005–2006)

References

Archdiocese of Keewatin–Le Pas page at catholichierarchy.org
retrieved June 11, 2013

External links