Our Lady of Sorrows Church

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Our Lady of Sorrows is a Roman Catholic church in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is located in the neighbourhood of The Kingsway in the former city of Etobicoke. The parish includes the central section of Etobicoke where two much earlier Catholic missions once served as the first Roman Catholic places of worship in Etobicoke.HistoryMission ChurchesAs the Township of Etobicoke was first settled by British military families there were few Catholics in the municipality and the area was technically in the early Catholic Parish of St Patrick's, Dixie although early Catholic residents of southern Etobicoke found the early parish of St Helen's in Toronto's western suburb of Brockton more convenient. The Diocese of Toronto established, at different times in the late 19th century, two mission churches of St Patrick's, Dixie, in Etobicoke; St Joseph's and St Rita's. Both these early missions were on Dundas Street West in the centre of Etobicoke, an area now within the boundaries of Our Lady of Sorrows Parish. In the early 20th century, southern Etobicoke began to rapidly urbanise and new municipalities were formed out of Etobicoke which left the rest of the township a rural municipality centred on the Islington postal village at Dundas and Bloor. The first permanent Catholic parishes were founded in the independent Lakeshore municipalities of Mimico and New Toronto .Founding of the ParishCentral Etobicoke was planned for development as a more exclusive residential neighbourhood than those that had separated from the township to the south, by Robert Home Smith, which eventually led to the creation of the first parish to remain in Etobicoke; Our Lady of Sorrows, in 1940. Founded during the Second World War, the first years of the parish were very active with parishioners organising to aid wartime charities and the construction of Our Lady of Sorrows Elementary School, which opened in 1942 as Etobicoke's first permanent Catholic school which was quickly followed just to the west by the first Catholic high schools in the Township: St Joseph's Islington in 1949 and Michael Power in 1947 . For many years the pastor of Our Lady of Sorrows, Msgr, later Bishop Francis Allen worked in the parish, even after his espicopal ordination, concentrating on the need to establish catholic schools in the rapidly developing township.