KAMLOOPS, DIOCESI of. - City and diocese in central southern Columbia, Canada. The first priest to arrive there, in 1842, was the Rev. Modesto Demers, a French Canadian. The Oblates of Mary Immaculate followed and visited the faithful before settling there permanently.
The diocese of K. was erected by Pius XII on 22 Dec. 1945 by his apostolic constitution Quæ rei sacrae, through dismemberment from the archdiocese of Vancouver, of which it is a suffragan. It has ten parishes with a population of 4,500 Canadians and 4,300 indigenous people, out of a total population of 55,000 inhabitants. The clergy comprises 9 diocesan priests, 3 Redemptorists, and 10 Oblates of Mary Immaculate; the latter are responsible for the indigenous people. The diocese also has 39 sisters, mostly of the Congregation of the Sisters of Ste Anne, whose motherhouse is in Montréal.