The Roman Catholic Church played a very important role in New France. They are supreme and they have a lot of authority in both New France and France. That means church opinions were taken into consideration when ever decisions are made. But they also has a lot of responsibilities and jobs.
The church in the colony was composed of both Secular and Religious Clergy.
Religious Uses
They had to provide religious services to the colony, and the most important, convert the Natives to Christianity.
Social Roles
The church needs to establish schools, charity and hospitals for the settlers and the poor.
The secular clergy consisted of the Bishop and the Parish Priests who served the rural communities of New France.
Bishops was a very influential and powerful figure in New France, they are responsible for teaching, governing, and sanctifying the faithful of his diocese, sharing these duties with the priests and deacons who serve under him.
The parish priests were very close to their parishioners and they had much influence over the population. In addition to their religious duties they were also responsible for keeping records of births, marriages and deaths. And also drawing up legal contracts in regions where there were no notaries. Kind of like a lawyer in the modern world.
Education
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Schools taught children about the religion, taught them how to do arithmetic, how to read, write French and Latin. Most of the children who go to school is the girls and the boys that are going to become a priest. Some schools only teach boys that wanted to become a priest. Other groups, such as the Ursuline, focused their educational efforts on aboriginal girls. However, girls are educated better than the boys. Boys are usually educated better than the girls in Europe, but is the opposite side in New France. Visitors from Europe are very surprised at those women who are better educated than their