Regina, Archdiocese of (REGINA, ARCIDIOCESI DI) - Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. X, p. 389

Machine translation of the 1948–1954 Italian original. The original text is authoritative.

REGINA, ARCHDIOCESE of. - In the south-eastern part of the province of Saskatchewan (Canada).

The Catholic population is 69,889 inhabitants. There are 91 parishes and 126 missions. The clergy consists of 98 diocesan priests and 76 religious.

The first priest to penetrate the region was Abbé Joseph-Norbert Provencher, a missionary at St-Boniface, in March 1819; he visited the banks of the Qu'Appelle River. Abbé Belcourt replaced him in 1886, and Abbé Ritchot founded the present parish of Lebret, where he was shortly afterwards succeeded by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate.

Article illustration — REGGIO EMILIA, DIOCESE of - Central nave of the distinguished basilica of S. Prospero (early 16th century) - Reggio Emilia.
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The small city, called R. in honour of Queen Victoria, was established in 1881 and subsequently became the provincial capital. In 1883 the first parish church was built. Even including the neighbouring missions, the parish numbered only a few hundred Catholics.

R. was raised to a diocese on 14 March 1910, and to an archdiocese on 4 Dec. 1915. It now has as suffragans the dioceses of Prince Albert, Gravelbourg, Saskatoon, and the abbey nullus of S. Pietro di Münster. Its bishops were Msgr Olivier-Elzéar Mathieu (1911–29), James Charles Mc Guigan (1929–34), Peter Joseph Monahan (1935–47), and, since 1947, Michael Cornelius O'Neill.

BIBL.: AAS, 2 (1910), p. 410; 8 (1916), p. 89; A. G. Morice, Hist. de l'Eglise cathol. dans l'Ouest Canadien, Montréal 1912; Le Canada ecclésiast. 1930, there 1950, pp. 546–81.

Germano Lesage