Catholic Quebec in decline

Until the 1960s, the Catholic Church was a dominant force in Quebec, the French-speaking province of eastern Canada. Mass attendance was as high as 90 percent among Catholics, and the Church wielded powerful influence in education, health care, and charitable endeavors.

Since that time, however, secularizing trends have spread throughout the province to the extent that the Church’s leadership, as well as that of other religions, has largely been pushed to the sidelines as policy issues are discussed in the public arena. Quebec’s secularization has also exacted a ripple effect on other Canadian provinces such that the right to practice one’s religion openly appears increasingly under threat.

CHANGE OF IDENTITY

French explorer Jacques Cartier first claimed Canada for France in 1534, and  Samuel de Champlain founded the Quebec colony in 1608. Religious communities such as the Jesuits and Franciscans soon built churches and ministered to European immigrants and Indian tribes of the region. 

France ceded control of Quebec to Protestant Great Britain after the Seven Years’ War in 1763, but Catholicism remained strong well into the 20th century. This began to change about 60 years ago, believes Benjamin Boivin, a writer with the French Catholic publication LeVerbe. 

“Our society went from being an entirely Catholic society to one of the most deeply secularized societies in the world during the 1960s,” Boivin said.

Francis Denis, a Quebec Catholic video journalist and author, added that Quebec society has embraced “exclusive humanism” explicitly “for about 40 years through cultural and institutional changes.”

As of 2023, he continued, the Church “has hit rock bottom in terms of religious vocations, truly Catholic schools, and invalid marriages.”

In public policy discussions, Church leaders “have become completely irrelevant in the sense that they have no voice,” Denis said. “Quebecers have found their new shepherd in government officials, and Church authorities don’t seem to have a big problem with that.”

Covid-19 lockdowns were among the most restrictive in North America, he noted, and Church officials not only complied, but in some dioceses “Christmas was completely canceled even without the state requiring it.”

DOWNWARD SPIRAL

Simon Labrecque, adjunct to the secretary-general of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec, said the so-called “Quiet Revolution” of the 1960s was the first wave of secularization that led to the state taking control of health care and education, replacing the Church’s longstanding role. The 1980s brought a second secularizing wave in public schools and other areas. Statistics reflecting the health of the Church in Quebec “have been on a descending trajectory for decades,” said Labrecque, “and the process has been accelerating.” 

In 2003, for example, there were 8,400 Catholic weddings celebrated. In 2016, there were just 3,900. 

Boivin observed that infant baptism in Quebec has become “uncommon,” and that “it is increasingly difficult to provide children with a formal Catholic education.” Decline in practice is seen also in other religious groups.

The new secular Quebec has adopted public policies that eradicate religion from public life. In May, for example, the Canadian government unveiled its new heraldic Canadian Crown, replacing the traditional St. Edward’s Crown used on Canada’s coat of arms and on police and military badges. The design replaces the religious symbols of crosses and fleur-de-lis with maple leaves and a snowflake. The redesign was based on a recommendation of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

BILL 21: A ‘LAY STATE’

In 2019, the Quebec National Assembly passed Bill 21, which declared Quebec to be a “lay state,” characterized by the “separation of state and religions” and “the religious neutrality of the state.” Controversially, Bill 21 forbade state employees from wearing religious clothing or symbols, such as a Christian cross or a Muslim hijab. Although those most affected are observant Muslims, Sikhs, and Jews who wear visible religious garb, it marked another restriction on religious expression.

Quebec’s bishops are ambivalent about Bill 21, said Labrecque. They agree that those with coercive forms of authority, such as policemen or prison guards, should not wear religious clothing or symbols, but don’t believe such restrictions should be placed on other state workers, such as teachers.

Denis noted that most Quebec citizens support Bill 21 “mainly due to the myth of the ‘Great Darkness’, the belief embedded in Quebec culture that religion — in this case, Catholicism — prevented the growth and development of Quebec before 1960. This belief results in religion being perceived globally as a negative and obscurantist force.”

Boivin agreed. “Our contemporary society is marked by a generalized hostility” to religion, he noted, and a widespread belief that the state should “force [faith] to be expressed almost exclusively in the private sphere.” 

FREEDOM: ‘MIXED BAG’

Religious liberty is a mixed bag in Canada, Denis believes, as Canadians are free to attend Mass but are forced to support abortion, contraception, and euthanasia through taxation. Additionally, Labrecque noted that while doctors may refuse to participate in what the state calls “Medical Assistance in Dying” (active euthanasia), they “must refer the patient to a colleague who will not refuse.”

Denis noted that due to the omnipresence of the state, which subsidizes most economic and social exchanges in Quebec society, “any criticism or expression of opinion contrary to the government doxa [is] very dangerous…. It is not safe to criticize the current regime.” 

Canada’s culture also exerts pressure to conform to the opinions of the political media elites, he added, and the Church tends to conform rather than fight “certain anti-Christian social trends.”

Boivin noted that battles over abortion and same-sex marriage are not as prevalent in Canada because “public opinion here is not as polarized” as in the U.S., and even pro-life Canadians believe these laws aren’t likely to change.  Active euthanasia, introduced in Canada only recently, is an exception. “The Church has naturally opposed this,” he said, “and many Quebecers, Catholic or not, have raised the seriousness of this issue.”

Denis opined that Catholic Quebecers must “fight the ideology and neopagan religion of the welfare state at every level,” which “is in the process of suffocating civil society and destroying all ‘intermediate societies’ such as the family.… There will not be much left of Quebec in a few years if this interventionist spiral is not fought.” 

And as goes Quebec, so will go the rest of Canada and the U.S., he believes.

Pope Francis’ response to secularization

[S]ecularization demands that we reflect on the changes in society that have influenced the way in which people think about and organize their lives. If we consider this aspect of the question, we come to realize that what is in crisis is not the faith, but some of the forms and ways in which we present it.... In this way, a discerning view, while acknowledging the difficulties we face in communicating the joy of the faith, motivates us, at the same time, to develop a new passion for evangelization, to look for new languages and forms of expression, to change certain pastoral priorities and to focus on the essentials....

Let us not allow the spirit of secularism to enter our midst, thinking that we can create plans that work automatically, and by human effort alone, apart from God.

— Pope Francis, Homily at Vesper Service, Basilica of Notre-Dame de Québec, July 28, 2022