Diocese in Newfoundland, erected in 1856. It comprises all the
northern bays — Conception, Trinity, Bonavista, Notre Dame, and
White Bays — together with that portion of the coast of Labrador
over which the Government of Newfoundland exercises
jurisdiction. Engaged in the ministerial work of the diocese are
twenty-three priests, who minister to the Catholic population of
twenty-nine thousand (29,000), consisting chiefly of sparse
congregations scattered over five hundred miles of coastline.
There are within the diocesan boundaries forty-nine churches,
eighty- five stations, five convents, of which three are of the
Order of the Presentation and two of the Order of Mercy, and one
hundred Catholic schools, having an attendance of four thousand
five hundred pupils. The towns of Harbor Grace and Carbonear
have each an academy, and in some other of the more populous
settlements there are superior or high schools. The system of
education is denominational, the annual legislative grand of
$245,323 being divided pro r