QUÉBEC CITY. The exit signs along Autoroute 40 between the quondam capital of New France and Montréal are a veritable Litany of the Saints: Saint-Augustin-de-Desmaures, Saint-Nicolas, Saint-Basile-Sud, Sainte-Catherine-de-la-Jacques-Cartier, Notre-Dame-de-Portneuf, Saint-Marc-des-Carrières, Sainte-Anne-de-la-Pérade, Saint-Pierre-les-Becquets, Sainte-Geneviève-de-Batiscan, Saint-Luc-de-Vincennes, Saint Maurice, Saint-Louis-de-France, Saint-Léon-le-Grand, down through L’Assomption and Sainte-Térèse.
The same pattern prevails here in Québec City, both the old town and the new: the index on my map lists 186 street names from “Saint-Adélard” to “Saint-Yves” and continues with another thirty-four from “Ste.-Angèle” to “Ste.-Ursule.” Those names evoke memories of a unique culture charmingly captured in Willa Cather’s Shadows on the Rock, and a history of Catholic devotion unparalleled north of the Rio Grande.
Québec City is also home to the relics of two of Catholicism’s newest saints, both canonized by Pope Francis in 2014: St. Marie de l’Incarnation (1599-1672), a mystically gifted Ursuline nun who helped found New France’s first schools for girls and native peoples, and St. François de Montmorency-Laval (1623-1708), the first residential Catholic bishop in North America. It was after praying at Laval’s tomb, however, that I noticed a memorial plaque more revelatory of the current state of Catholicism in Québec than the province’s notable register of saints.
The plaque had been placed in the cathedral in 2008, during the civic celebration of the four hundredth anniversary of the founding of New France, and it read like this (my translation): “The Society for the 400th Anniversary of Québec, through its president, Mr. Jean Leclerc, pays homage to bishops, priests, and religious communities of men and women for their exceptional contributions to the history and the culture of the people of Québec.” A generous sentiment, to be sure. But what about the contributions of those bishops, priests, brothers, and sisters to the beatitude and salvation of les Quebecois?
Québec, a flourishing Catholic region for centuries, is now Catholicism’s empty quarter in the Western Hemisphere. There is no more religiously arid place between the North Pole and Tierra del Fuego; there may be no more religiously arid place on the planet. And it all happened in the blink of an eye. In 1937, a half-million Quebecois poured into the streets of Montréal for the funeral procession of “Brother André” of the Congregation of the Holy Cross, a passionate devoté of St. Joseph and worker of miraculous cures who would be canonized by Pope Benedict XVI as St. André Bessette. Eighty years later, no such demonstration of piety in La Belle Province could be imagined – except if Les Habitants, otherwise known as the Canadiens, won the Stanley Cup, and that would involve a rather different sort of piety.
What happened?
It’s often struck me that there are intriguing parallels among four intensely Catholic nations that went all-in secular during the late-twentieth century: Québec, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland. The differences are obvious, but look at the similarities. In each case the Church, and especially its clergy, was deeply entangled with politics and state power. In each case authoritarian government long prevailed, in marked contrast to other parts of the West. In each case, the inevitable confrontation between Catholicism and modernity was deferred as long as possible – not least through that Church-state entanglement. And in each case, when the tidal wave of modernity hit, it swept all before it within a generation.
When my summer neighbors here in Québec were growing up, their parents sought the intercession of “Brother André” for their sick. Today, three members of my summer parish were each asked, on being given a diagnosis of cancer, whether they wished to be euthanized – and that was the first question put to them. Le quart vide de catholicisme in North America is about to become this continent’s premier state-sponsored killing ground of the inconveniently ill and elderly; and it seems likely that the severely disabled won’t be far behind. Yet Québec’s Catholic leadership is virtually invisible in public life and there is little indication that the New Evangelization has gotten any significant traction here.
Québec, once home to legions of confessors of the faith, badly needs such men and women again. They will only emerge from a faith as intense as that which once drove François Laval and Marie de l’Incarnation from the comforts of Europe to a then-bleak rock overlooking the St. Lawrence River.
by George Weigel
COMMENT:
Bonjour Mr Weigel,
Proud member of the JPII Generation (I met my Polish wife thanks to him at WYD2002), I am an admirer of your work. Thank you for standing up so often for saint John Paul II.
I read with interest your column titled « Catholicism’s empty quarter » last week.
As a « catholique québécois » deeply attached to the faith of my ancestors, I had to respond to it.
Please find below the text I will try to send to most of the Catholic media outlets that shared your column:
Catholicism in Québec, beyond the emptiness
“Québec, Catholicism’s empty quarter in the Western Hemisphere”… Ouch! Reading George Weigel’s column hurt, because it rings true in many aspects. Yet, I thought about what I would have shared with him if we would have met while he was visiting my hometown, Québec City.
I would have most agreed with him about the importance of secularization in Québec. A harsh reality lived with difficulty by many Catholics, but that is only part of the picture. Rather than an empty quarter, Québec is more of an old quarter experiencing profound renovations with only a portion of the workers remembering who the Architect is. Among this portion, many are working actively towards engaging those who forgot (or those who never heard of) Him. I can witness them on a daily basis. Are there enough of them? No. This is now a top priority among our dioceses. Catholic parishes all over the province are living through a vast pastoral conversion: they are learning again how to form missionary disciples. Yes, Québec is indeed now mission territory.
Among the many reasons to remain hopeful, I could talk about a movement toward Healing our collective memory (called Guérison de la mémoire, the topic of a well attended colloquium last June), a new wave of Catholic media initiatives (including Le Verbe, a thought-provoking blog / slick magazine soon distributed for free in stands), and new evangelization geared towards teens, youth and new beginners.
As for the culture of death associated with medical assistance in dying (aka euthanasia, available here since December 2015), it is confronted with strong resistance. I am very proud how most of our Catholic Church episcopal leadership was vocal during every step of the way leading to the legalization of assisted suicide. Our Bishops are working alongside committed lay Catholics, together standing up to be heard in the public square. A little known fact is that 29 out of 31 palliative care centres in Québec still refuse to offer medically assisted death, as do many doctors and nurses working in palliative units in hospitals throughout the province.
The future of Catholicism in Québec has many doubters, but I am not one of them. The missionary shift is underway, taking its roots in the shining example of our Blessed and Saints who brought Jesus Christ and his Church to North America.
Next time you come by visiting us Mr Weigel, I hope to share with you some of this hope first hand.
Jasmin Lemieux-Lefebvre
Archdiocese of Québec
Directeur des communications
418 688-1211, poste 208
Cell phone: 418-802-1214
Église catholique de Québec
www.ecdq.org