Catholics at the Gathering Place – By Mark McGowan

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.