Where is Québec Going? On Faith and Secularism

"A people whose identity was substantially shaped over centuries by the Catholic faith cannot from one day to the next purge itself of its essence, without grave repercussions on all levels."

ROMA (Chiesa) - Marc Cardinal Ouellet of Quebec described and analyzed the secularization of Québec in an article in the most recent issue of "Vita e Pensiero," the magazine of the Catholic University of Milan. It was :published on the eve of a synod of bishops dedicated to "how to make the proclamation of the Gospel increasingly effective in our time." Sandro Magister reprinted the article and we offer it to our readers below:

"From the outset, I state my conviction that the crisis of values and the search for meaning are so profound and urgent in Québec as to have serious repercussions on public health as well, and this is generating enormous costs for the health system. For four hundred years, Québec society has rested on two pillars, French culture and the Catholic religion, which form the basic armor that has allowed the integration of other components of its current pluralist identity. Nonetheless, this armor has been made fragile by the weakening of the religious identity of the Francophone majority.

The current debate touches directly on religion and relations among the cultural communities, but the real problem does not concern the integration of immigrants, made more difficult by their requests of a religious nature. Statistics reveal that the requests for accommodation for religious reasons are minimal, which means that the reason for the current tensions are to be sought elsewhere. The responsibility for the profound crisis of Québec society should therefore not be attributed to those who have arrived there searching for refuge, or to their religion, viewed as invasive. Refugees and immigrants often bring us the richness of their testimony and of their cultural values, which are added to the values proper to Québec society. Openness and solidarity should therefore remain basic attitudes toward immigrants and their human and religious needs.

The real problem - taking up the rather vague expression that encourages the spread of the fashionable slogan "religion in private or in church, but not in public" - is no longer that of "the place that religion occupies in public places." And what are public places? The street, the park, the media, the school, city hall, the national parliament? Should the monuments dedicated to Monsignor François de Laval and to Cardinal Taschereau be removed from public view? Should the greeting "Merry Christmas" be prohibited by lawmakers, and replaced with "Season's Greetings," to be more correct? Have the religious symbols that are characteristic of our history, and therefore part of the makeup of our collective identity, become annoyances and bad memories to be hidden away? Must they be eliminated from public places in order to satisfy a radical secularist minority that is the only one to complain, in the name of the absolute equality of citizens?

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Believers and nonbelievers take their belief or nonbelief with them everywhere they go. They are called to live together, to accept and respect each other, not to impose their belief or nonbelief, in private or in public. Is not, perhaps, the removal from public places of every religious sign identified culturally according to a well-defined tradition, with its religious dimension, the same thing as promoting the absence of belief as the only value worthy of being asserted? The presence of the crucifix in the national parliament, in city hall, at intersections, is not the symbol of any sort of state religion. It is an identifying and cultural sign connected to the concrete history of a population that has the right to the continuity of its institutions and symbols. This symbol is not in the first place a confessional sign, but the testimony of the cultural heritage of an entire society marked by its historical vocation as the cradle of the evangelization of North America. The government of the Canadian province of Québec just recently rejected a proposal to remove the crucifix from parliament.

Québec's real problem is not, therefore, the presence of religious signs or the appearance of new religious signs that intrude in public places. Québec's real problem is the spiritual vacuum created by a religious and cultural rupture, by the substantial loss of memory, which leads to a crisis in the family and in education, leaving citizens disoriented, dispirited, vulnerable to instability and attracted to fleeting and superficial values. This spiritual and symbolic vacuum undermines the culture of Québec from within, dispersing its vital energy and generating insecurity and a lack of grounding and continuity with the evangelical and sacramental values that have nourished it since its origin.

A people whose identity was substantially shaped over centuries by the Catholic faith cannot from one day to the next purge itself of its essence, without grave repercussions on all levels. It is this that has led to the disorientation of young people, the precipitous drop in marriages, the low birthrate, and the frightening number of abortions and suicides, to mention just a few of the consequences, in addition to the precarious situation of the elderly and of public health. To finish, this spiritual and cultural vacuum is maintained by an anti-Catholic rhetoric full of clichés, which unfortunately is found too often in the media.

This fosters a true culture of shame and disdain in regard to our religious heritage, and destroys the soul of Québec. The time has come to ask ourselves: "Québec,what have you done with your baptism?" The time has come to stop the secularist fundamentalism imposed by means of public funding, and restore a better balance between tradition and creative innovation, at the service of the common good. We must relearn respect for the religion that forged the identity of the population, and respect for all religions, without giving in to the pressure of the secular fundamentalists who are demanding the exclusion of religion from the public sphere.

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Québec is ripe for a profound new evangelization, which is already appearing in certain areas through important catechetical initiatives, and also through common efforts to return to the sources of our history. Spiritual and cultural renewal is possible if the dialogue among state, society, and the church resumes its course, constructive and respectful of our now pluralist collective identity.

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Chiesa is a wonderful source on all things Catholic in Europe. It is skillfully edited by Sandro Magister. SANDRO MAGISTER was born on the feast of the Guardian Angels in 1943, in the town of Busto Arsizio in the archdiocese of Milan. The following day he was baptized into the Catholic Church. His wife’s name is Anna, and he has two daughters, Sara and Marta. He lives in Rome.