These seventeen original and innovative studies reinterpret the social and institutional development of the Archdiocese of Toronto. Beginning with the arrival of Irish Catholic immigrants in the 1820s and concluding with the Archdiocese’s burgeoning ethnic mosaic of the present day, this volume examines the evolution of lay confraternities, clerical formation and discipline, religous education, immigrant adjustment, the life and contribution of women’s religious orders, the Catholic response to conscription during World War I and the fascism during World War II, and the Catholic struggle for social justice amidst Toronto’s rapid industrial growth. Throughout, we witness the exciting interplay beween the Archdiocese’s Catholics and their increasingly secularized environment.

Mark McGowan is a specialist in the religious, social, migration, and educational history of Canada. He is the author of The Waning of the Green: Catholics, the Irish and Identity in Toronto, 1887–1922 (McGill-Queen’s), and Michael Power: The Struggle to Build the Catholic Church on the Canadian Frontier, the first full-length biography of Toronto’s first Roman Catholic bishop.

Mark McGowan's profile page

"Catholics at the 'Gathering Place' marks a major step forward in Canadian Roman Catholic historiography."

Canadian Book Review Annual

"This is an excellent collection of articles that deserves a wide readership amongst those interested not only in Catholic history, but also in the broader religious, cultural, and ethnic history of the province."

Glenn Wright