The Catholic Church in Canada is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. As of 2008, it has the largest number of adherents to a religion in Canada, with 46% of Canadians (13.07 million) baptized as Catholics. There are 72 dioceses and about 8,000 priests in Canada.

History

Catholicism arrived in Canada in 1497, when John Cabot landed on Newfoundland, raised the Venetian and Papal banners and claimed the land for his sponsor King Henry VII of England, while recognizing the religious authority of the Roman Catholic Church. A letter of John Day states that Cabot landed on 24 June 1497 and "went ashore with a crucifix and raised banners bearing the arms of the Holy Father". In 1608, Samuel de Champlain founded the first Catholic colony in Quebec City. In 1611, he established a fur trading post on the Island of Montreal, which later became a Catholic colony for trade and missionary activity.

Coordinates: 60°N 95°W / 60°N 95°W / 60; -95

Canada (ⁱ/ˈkænədə/; French: [ka.na.da]) is a country in the northern part of North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering 9.98 million square kilometres (3.85 million square miles), making it the world's second-largest country by total area and the fourth-largest country by land area. Canada's border with the United States is the world's longest land border. Canada is sparsely populated, the majority of its land territory being dominated by forest and tundra and the Rocky Mountains; about four-fifths of the country's population of 35 million people live near the southern border. The majority of Canada has a cold or severely cold winter climate, but southerly areas are warm in summer.

The land now called Canada has been inhabited for millennia by various Aboriginal peoples. Beginning in the 15th century, British and French colonies were established on the Atlantic coast, with the first establishment of a region called "Canada" occurring in 1537. As a consequence of various conflicts, the United Kingdom gained and lost territories within British North America until left, in the late 18th century, with what mostly geographically comprises Canada today. Pursuant to the British North America Act, on July 1, 1867, the colonies of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia joined to form the autonomous federal Dominion of Canada. This began an accretion of provinces and territories to the self-governing Dominion to the present ten provinces and three territories forming modern Canada. In 1931, Canada achieved near total independence from the United Kingdom with the Statute of Westminster 1931, and full sovereignty was attained when the Canada Act 1982 removed the last remaining ties of legal dependence on the British parliament.

The Ecclesiastical Province of Canada was founded in 1860 and is one of four ecclesiastical provinces in the Anglican Church of Canada. Despite its name, the province covers only the former territory of Lower Canada (i.e., southern and eastern Quebec), the Maritimes, and Newfoundland and Labrador (Ontario was split off as a separate province in 1913). There are seven dioceses in the province:

Provinces of the Anglican Church of Canada are headed by a Metropolitan, elected from among the province's diocesan bishops. This bishop then becomes Archbishop of his or her diocese and Metropolitan of the Province. The current Metropolitan of the Province of Canada is the Most Rev. Percy D. Coffin, Archbishop of Western Newfoundland.

Canada may refer to a number of ships

Sailing ships:

Other: