Ottawa, Archdiocese of

OTTAWA, ARCHDIOCESE of. — In the province of Ontario, Canada. The archdiocese has an area of 13,000 square miles and a population of 376,000 inhabitants, of whom 338,000 are Catholics, distributed among 132 parishes. The clergy consists of 248 diocesan priests and 370 religious priests; there are 3 seminaries, one diocesan, one university seminary (Séminaire St-Paul de l'Université d'O.), and one minor seminary, as well as 51 male and 111 female religious communities.

Mons. Ignazio Bourget, having taken possession of his episcopal see of Montréal (Québec) in 1840, considered uniting the various dioceses of Canada into ecclesiastical provinces and also insisted on the need to divide the dioceses already in existence. In 1844, Rome erected the first ecclesiastical province of Canada, with the dioceses of Québec, Montréal, Kingston, and Toronto. Meanwhile, the bishop of Montréal was sending missionaries to the west and north of the country, and in 1841 obtained from mons. Eugenio de Mazenod, bishop of Marseille, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate for his diocese. The Oblates landed at Montréal on 2 Dec. 1841, and in 1844 mons. Bourget sent some of them to Bytown. In 1846, he explained to the Canadian bishops the need to erect a diocese at Bytown. All the bishops concerned signed a petition to the Holy See for this purpose and also requested that Fr. Eugenio Bruno Guigues, O.M.I., be appointed its bishop. Pius IX granted the desired favor and erected the diocese on 25 June 1847 with the bull Ad prospiciendum facilis, entrusting it to Fr. Guigues (9 July), who immediately set to work organizing the new diocese. He founded schools, hospitals, parishes, and a classical college that became the Catholic University of O. A large part of the churches was dedicated to Our Lady.

The name of the diocese was changed to that of O. on 14 June 1850, and Leo XIII raised it to an archdiocese on 8 June 1886.

When mons. Guigues came to Bytown, he found there 6 diocesan priests and 8 Oblate missionaries; on 8 Feb. 1874, the day of his death, the diocese already counted 55 churches, 33 chapels, and 80,000 faithful.

The ecclesiastical province of O. today comprises the dioceses of Pembroke (Ontario), Mont-Laurier (Québec), Timmins, Hearst, and the apostolic vicariate of James Bay (all in the province of Ontario). In 1947, to commemorate the centenary of the archdiocese, a great Marian congress was held at O., attended by more than 1,000,000 faithful, 9 cardinals, and 104 bishops.

UNIVERSITÀ DI O. - Immediately after his consecration, Msgr. Guigues began the foundation of an educational institution which, under the name of St. Joseph’s College of Bytown, was inaugurated on 26 September 1848; the following year it was recognized by the government under the name of College of O. Msgr. Guigues entrusted its administration in perpetuity to the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

The College’s sound organization and the spirit with which

it was imbued, ensuring the two peoples, English and French, the right to instruction in both languages, led the government of United Canada to grant it (4 July 1866) the civil status of a university. Leo XIII conferred on it (5 February 1889) the status of a pontifical university, which, revised in accordance with the constitution Deus Scientiarum Dominus, was approved anew by Pius XI (15 November 1934), constituting the first case of its kind throughout the American continent. The civil charter, too, was updated and approved by the Parliament of Ontario on 18 April 1933.

From the outset, Thomistic philosophy and the sciences were cultivated in a particularly notable manner; but the specifically academic development of the University actually began in 1923. A bilingual normal school (Institute of Pedagogy) was established then; four years later it became the official school of the government of Ontario. In 1929, the already existing School for Nurses at the general hospital of the Suore Bigie d'O. affiliated with the University and became, in 1940, a university school. In that same year, 1929, a pre-medical course was established; in 1945 it was transformed into a Faculty of Medicine with its own university hospital, generously provided by the Suore Bigie. The School of Sacred Music, founded in 1932, became three years later the present School of Music and Declamation. In 1934, an Institute of Philosophy welcomed lay young people desirous of higher education, and in the summer of 1936 the St. Paul University Seminary opened for ecclesiastical students in the Faculties of Theology, Canon Law, and Philosophy. The library of this last institution deserves mention, being among the richest existing in North America.

Special mention should be made of the Faculty of Arts, the first nucleus of the University of O., whose progressive development marks the rhythm of the evolution of the entire undertaking. The science course was founded in 1935; the commerce course in 1937; and the Institute of Geography in 1951. There were also summer courses in 1935, correspondence courses in 1936, evening courses in 1937, and the establishment of a graduate school in 1949. The School of Librarianship, the School of Political and Diplomatic Sciences, the Institute of Experimental Psychology with its education section, the School of Catholic Action, the School of Applied Sciences (Engineering), the East and South European Institute, the Inter-American Institute, the Institute of Physical Education, the Faculty of Law, and the Institute of Missiology complete the series of existing schools and faculties. The Catholic Centre and the Social Centre disseminate Catholic and social doctrine throughout the country and the United States. The scientific activity of the University of O. is documented by the Revue de l'Université and the Editions de l'Université d'O.

The 120 students of 1856 have today become more than 4,000. - Vedi tav. XXXII.