MACKENZIE, APOSTOLIC VICARIATE OF. - Located in the central-northern regions of Canada, erected on 30 July 1901 by the dismemberment of the vicariate of Athabasca-M. Its vast extent and the arduous mountain systems that cross it, being a disadvantage to the work of evangelization, induced the S. Congr. de Propaganda Fide, in 1907, to detach from M. the district of Yukon, which together with other districts dismembered from the diocese of New Westminster was erected into an apostolic prefecture (today the apostolic vicariate of Whitehorse). This mutilation was, however, compensated on 15 March 1927 with the annexation to the vicariate of the district of Athabasca, until then belonging to Cronard.
The territory of M. is covered with forests and is little suited to cultivation because of the harshness of the climate. The population is composed of Eskimos and Indians, who inhabit respectively the shores of the Arctic Ocean and the southern part of the territory, devoting themselves to fishing and hunting, the only resources for life. The whites, scattered somewhat everywhere, are employed in the gold mines and in the air and river services. At present an attempt is being made to organize agriculture in the western zone, and this on the initiative of the missionaries supported by the government, which is also organizing sanatoriums equipped with modern facilities to prevent and treat tuberculosis, which is claiming numerous victims among the Indians and Eskimos. In the vicariate there are no large centers. The population is around 14,000 inhabitants, of whom 8,202 are Catholics and the rest Protestants and pagans. The Oblate Fathers of Mary Immaculate attend to its evangelization. Today the problem of distances has been happily solved with aviation, placed directly at the service of the missionaries. According to the statistical data of 1950, the priests number 60, the coadjutor brothers 48 and the sisters 96. There are 11 elementary schools, 2 middle schools and 4 vocational schools; 16 dispensaries, 8 hospitals with 800 beds and 4 orphanages with 11 places.