FORMATIVE YEARS

• - 1841 Dec. 17: The Diocese of Toronto is created. Michael Power is appointed its first bishop.
• - 1848 Sept. 29: St. Michael’s Cathedral is consecrated. Catholic population reaches 50,000.
• - 1850 Sept. 22: Bishop Armand-François-Marie de Charbonnel is installed as second bishop of Toronto. He uses his personal estate to pay off debt on St. Michael’s Cathedral.
• - 1856: Diocese of Toronto is divided by the creation of the dioceses of Hamilton and London.
• - 1857: House of Providence opens. St. Paul’s Church Cemetery is closed after filling up quickly with the burials of Irish immigrants who had succumbed to typhoid fever.
• - 1859 April 29: Bishop de Charbonnel resigns, Bishop John Lynch becomes third Bishop.
• - 1870 March 18: Pope Pius IX raises Toronto to an Archdiocese.
• - 1876: Sacred Heart Orphanage is established on the site of today’s St. Joseph’s Health Centre.
• - 1892: St. Michael’s Hospital is founded by the Sisters of St. Joseph.
• - 1893: The Catholic Register newspaper is launched.
• - 1908 April 13: Archbishop Fergus Patrick McEvay is appointed Archbishop of Toronto.
• - 1908: Canadian Catholic Church Extension Society is founded (changed to Catholic Missions In Canada in 1999).
• - 1911: Catholic population is 70,000 and total number of churches is 92.
• - 1912 Dec. 22: Archbishop Neil McNeil appointed to head Toronto archdiocese.
• - 1913: Catholic Charities office is formed. … Aug. 28: Opening of St. Augustine’s Seminary.
• - 1924: China Mission Seminary is established next to St. Augustine’s Seminary, later becoming the Scarborough Foreign Mission Society.
• - 1935 March 20: Archbishop James C. McGuigan is installed in Toronto.

MODERN ERA

• - 1949: Catholic population is 197,000, served by 158 parishes and missions.
• -  Establishment of the Diocese of St. Catharines.
• - 1970 April: Toronto School of Theology is incorporated.
• - 1971: Cardinal McGuigan resigns and is succeeded by Archbishop Philip F. Pocock.
• - 1974: May-June: The first 26 Permanent Deacons of the Archdiocese of Toronto are ordained.
• - 1976: ShareLife is established when Archbishop Pocock withdraws the Council of Catholic Charities from the United Way.
• - 1978 April 29: Archbishop Pocock resigns and Bishop Gerald Emmett Carter is installed.
• - 1979 May 26: Archbishop Carter is elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals.
• - 1982: Covenant House is established in downtown Toronto.
• - 1984: Catholic population is 1,214,000, served by 214 parishes, missions and chapels.
• - 1985: Ontario Government passes legislation providing full funding to Catholic high schools.
• - 1990 March 17: Cardinal Carter resigns, succeeded by Archbishop Aloysius Ambrozic.
• -1992: Catholic population is 1,337,000, served by 233 parishes, missions and chapels.
• - 1998 Feb. 21: Archbishop Ambrozic is elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals.
• - 2000 Nov. 5: Official blessing of St. Paul’s Church as a minor basilica.
• - 2002 July 23-28: World Youth Day in Toronto, presided over by Pope John Paul II.
• - 2002 Nov. 16: Canadian Catholic Bioethics Institute is opened.
• - 2006 Dec. 16: Cardinal Ambrozic resigns and Archbishop Thomas Collins appointed as the 10th Archbishop of Toronto.
• - 2012 Feb. 18: Archbishop Collins is elevated to the Sacred College of Cardinals.
• - 2016 Sept. 30: St. Michael’s Cathedral officially reopens and is consecrated as a minor basilica after a five-year, $28-million renovation.
• - Today: The Archdiocese of Toronto is Canada’s largest diocese. The Catholic population of 2 million is served by 225 parishes and includes 806 priests and 91 religious orders.