StFX might be named after a Catholic saint, but it is a public institution. There are still some members of it's former Catholic past that are alive and the university houses and feeds daily, but there are no members of the Roman Catholic clergy on staff, except for one particular priest who is hired by the Students' Union. It's a secular school, with an extremely liberal membership, in professors, students, and directors. There's a few vestiges of Catholicism left that the students barely tolerate and certainly pay no attention to. Since I am familiar with the town and an alumnus of the school, I can say this with some assurances.
I guess just googling a town doesn't really teach you anything about it. St. Ninian's is the Roman Catholic Church in Antigonish, Foro. It is a very large cathedral for a small Canadian town, and it has more attendance than any other place of worship in Antigonish - even now, after the sex scandals, more than all of them combined. I will admit some of the architecture and the stained glass inside is gorgeous.
My town also has a United Church, a Baptist Church, and an Anglican Church. Since you're clearly unaware of the differences between those churches and the Catholic Church, at least in Canada, let me educate you. The United Church is an amalgamation of most of the Presbyterian Church of Canada, all of the Methodist Church of Canada, the Congregational Union of Ontario and Quebec, the Association of Local Union Churches, and the Evangelical United Brethren Church. It is a liberal organization that has supported drives for safe sex education, gay marriage, and abortion rights protection. It is the second largest church in my town; the priest plays D&D with me and has similar views on most things I do, except, of course, the divinity of Jesus. But we never talk about it.
Our Anglican Church is a very small, friendly church that has had attendance and fund-raising issues of late. The Anglican Church of Canada is the most progressive Anglican Church in the world, pushing the Anglican Communion forward on issues like abortion, gay marriage and inclusion of female members of the clergy. My local Anglican Church was one of the first dozen or so of Anglican churches to perform a gay marriage in Canada.
I can't say anything nice about the Baptists. They are just as bad as they are in the States. Thing is they meet in a tiny, old warehouse, and I've never seen more than a dozen cars there. Evangelical Baptists are a rarity in Nova Scotia, and they are generally considered powerless in this town, and in this province.
Outside of Antigonish, but within reasonable driving distance there is a Hall of the Jehovah's Witnesses, a small Mennonite community church...and no less than 5 other Catholic churches off the top of my head. Just to give you an idea of how the religious diversity of the region is.
The Roman Catholic Church is the largest religious institution in Canada. Of the top three Christian faiths it not only has the most members but it has more than all the other Christian faiths combined. It is far more officially conservative than most other religions. However, most Catholics aren't as addicted to dogma as the Pope (probably the last one a tiny bit more than this one) would like. That just isn't true in this town.
What I do know is that Catholics kept sex education out of Antigonish schools until a provincial mandate overruled the local schoolboard. Catholics kept education on abortion rights out of the local schools until the same. Catholics go to kids and go to the hospital and distribute flyers and Bibles informing people of their sins and how they can still be okay if they ask for confession on their deathbed. Priests have been known to enter rooms in the hospital and administer last rites without permission to people who don't want it. The local Catholic priest is invited to every local ceremony to give prayer - none other ever are. There are multiple places in Antigonish where you cannot get a job unless they see you at St. Ninians. When a man I know was beaten near-to-death by a group of football players for the crime of being gay (not hitting on the football players, simply being gay in a public place) it was Catholics who tried to block a permit for a public protest against anti-gay violence.
Interestingly, the Catholics seem to have little interest in going after the university. It's like they consider whatever happens on university ground to be long gone. Even the members of the Church who live on campus are pretty kind old men and women, who show a lot of concern for a person individually but rarely say anything about the sin that occurs on school grounds - except for one retired priest, who recently passed, who always railed about the evils of youth. The only Roman Catholic priest, Father Paul, who I've ever had any modicum of personal respect for also lived and worked at StFX. Of course, Father Paul also was a very liberal man (for a Catholic priest) who believed the Church needed to change. He was constantly at odds with the Bishop of Antigonish, though quietly and politely. When some of the local sex scandal news broke, he was...unsurprised, grim, and sad. Honestly so. He protested some of the things they tried to do before the local diocese agreed to settle - so they shipped him away from here rather than listen to his recommendations. Put him in a tiny parish in another province, well away from the media attention.
So yeah, the Catholics are the problem. It's less nowadays, due to a combination of outside pressure and the loss of influence of the Church after priests in Antigonish were caught raping little boys, and then after the bishop who was brought in to right the ship turned out to jerk off to pictures of naked young boys being flogged with rosaries. But if the priest gets up at St Ninians and says that there has been a new attack on the community through schools, or a new business, or anything, people will protest it, and they will fight it, and if it's a new business (say, a local gaming shop that they claim is for "Satan's cult worship" or a nice, needed, classy sex shop) it'll die. The other churches? Never a problem. Well maybe the Baptists, but really, they aren't anyone. They don't count, they don't have the numbers and influence. They call Antigonish "The Little Vatican" - and they're right.
