This is the history of the Roman Catholic church in Newfoundland and Labrador to 1850, from the earliest missions to the end of Bishop Fleming's episcopate. Topics include the Presentation and Mercy sisters, education, and the persecution of the Roman Catholics in Newfoundland, as well as the role played by the church in the aftermath of the great fire of 1846.

"From 1914 to 1918, tens of thousands of Canadian Catholic men and women of Irish descent or birth rallied to the Empire's call to arms against Germany and its allies. Bishops, priests, Catholic newspaper editors, and Irish Catholic politicians from across Canada publicly supported Government efforts to win the war. Despite these actions, non-Catholic Canadians continued to doubt the loyalty of Irish Catholics. The neutrality of Pope Benedict XV,...

"Chapters are devoted to specific sources and what they can reveal about the church and those who were members of it. Much information concerning Catholicism is to be found in the records of repression. The records of Quarter Sessions and the Anglican ecclesiastical courts, together with central government sources, tell us much about our Roman Catholic ancestors, and are fully described. So are the records of Roman Catholic baptisms, marriages and...