Metropolitan Edmonton, Alberta Denomination Roman Catholic Established 1912-11-30 Archbishop Richard William Smith Schools 10 Ecclesiastical provinces Alberta, Edmonton | Parishes 129 Rite Roman Rite Area 81,151 km² Country Canada Auxiliary bishop Gregory Bittman | |
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Population
- Total
- Catholics 1,557,922
368,545 (23.7%) Cathedral St. Joseph's Basilica, Edmonton | ||
The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton (Latin: Archidioecesis Edmontonensis) is a Latin Metropolitan archdiocese in the Canadian federal Province of Alberta.
Contents
The archbishop's cathedral see is located in St. Joseph Cathedral, a Minor basilica in Edmonton, Alberta.
On March 22, 2007, Vatican Information Services announced that a Halifax native, Bishop Richard William Smith of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Pembroke, Canada, had been appointed as Archbishop-elect of Edmonton by Pope Benedict XVI.
On Saturday, July 14, 2012, an official news release from Vatican Information Service (VIS), an arm of the Holy See Press Office, stated that Pope Benedict XVI had appointed Father Gregory Bittman who, until then had been serving as the Judicial Vicar and as Archdiocesan Chancellor, as an Auxiliary Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Edmonton and Titular Bishop of Caltadria.
Ecclesiastical province
Its suffragan sees are :
History
Established on 22 September 1871 as the Diocese of St Albert (Latin Sancti Alberti), on territory split off from the then Diocese of Saint-Boniface, to which it lost territory again in 1889 (meanwhile Metropolitan Archdiocese of Saint-Boniface)
Promoted on 1912.11.30 as Metropolitan Archdiocese of Edmonton / Edmontonen(sis) (Latin), having lost territory to establish the Roman Catholic Diocese of Calgary as its first suffragan.
Lost territory again on 1948.07.17 to establish the Roman Catholic Diocese of Saint Paul, Alberta, which became its second suffragan.
It enjoyed a Papal visit from Pope John Paul II in September 1984.
Diocesan Episcopate
(all Roman rite)
Statistics and extent
The Archdiocese (not including its suffragan dioceses) covers Central Alberta, Edmonton Capital Region and the middle and upper half of the Alberta's Rockies region.
As of 2014, it pastorally served 640,813 Catholics (38.0% of 1,686,345 total) on 81,151 km² in 124 parishes and 5 missions with 168 priests (75 diocesan, 93 religious), 25 deacons, 318 lay religious (111 brothers, 207 sisters) and 5 seminarians
In 2010 the archdiocese contains 129 parishes and missions, 96 diocesan priests, 85 religious priests, and 368,545 Catholics. It also has 278 women religious, 18 religious brothers, and 14 permanent deacons.