Being Catholic Today, or How to Resist Conformism
Photo by Gunther Gamper.
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Misunderstood and marginalized, Catholic youth are the victims of prevailing attitudes. Living in a consumer society inevitably brings its share of problems, especially for young Quebecers who have chosen to ground their lives in their Christian faith. Collision between the latest trends and the need to believe.
Sunday, December 18, 7 pm. Around twenty students from Université de Montréal enter the Centre étudiant Benoît-Lacroix (CEBL) on Côte-Sainte-Catherine Road in Montréal, near the university. They have just come from a mass that was held a short distance from the Saint-Albert-le-Grand des Dominicains Convent, where the new premises of the Centre are located. "Normally, there are more of us on Sunday evenings. But because it’s the end of term and exam time, there are fewer students than usual today,” indicates the head of socio-cultural activities at CEBL, Hélène Parent. She notes that the students get together weekly to share ideas. “They come here to have supper and discuss together,” she says.
Groups of this nature, which offers various activities and opportunities to get together, exist in Montréal’s other universities—UQÀM (Université du Québec à Montréal), Concordia University, and McGill—and in many CEGEPs (the acronym for Quebec’s general and vocational colleges). However, the main difference between CEBL and the other groups and is that in 1997, CEBL underwent a forced and complete deinstitutionalization. Since then, the Centre has been autonomous from the university and must turn to the Dominicans and the Montréal diocese to obtain the necessary funding to offer pastoral services to students at the Université de Montréal.
It’s not easy being observant in Quebec today
Pastoral centres are not the only groups that are feeling the backlash of the secularization of Quebec society. Hélène Parent sums up the reality of young people in simple but striking terms: “Many are victims of religious discrimination; some are pushed to the margins of society. That is the reality.” She immediately mitigates her comments by adding that it doesn’t mean they are victimized. “They don’t have the souls of martyrs, I assure you,” she smiles.
However, the students encountered during the evening do not hesitate to admit that it’s not the easiest thing to be observant in Quebec today. Jonathan Blais, a political science student in his early twenties, acknowledges that religion is not popular among people his age. He admits that it is stressful at times to be subjected to the incomprehension that prevails with regard to religious beliefs and practices. “Some people see religion as a kind of sect. In Quebec, you find that in particular with regard to Christianity. But to think that is to fail to understand it,” he says.
This lack of comprehension is no invention; it well and truly exists, insists Raymond Lemieux, a specialist in religion at Université Laval. It can be explained by the fact that in less than half a century, conformism has literally switched sides. “Before, young people were completed acculturized in Catholicism; conformism prevailed. But things have changed. Today, it is secularism that is conformist.” He quickly adds that the vast majority of young people now draw their points of reference from the mass media culture. “And that can have the effect of marginalizing those who are different, including those who practise any form of religion.”
The fear of anything to do with religion is a still-present vestige of the gulf that has arisen between living Catholic culture and public culture in Quebec since the Quiet Revolution. It is a deeply felt reality. In an article on the paradoxical vitality of Catholicism in Quebec, published in collaboration with Jean-Paul Montminy in the collection of essays entitled Le Québec en jeu. Comprendre les grands défis by the Presses de l’Université de Montréal, Raymond Lemieux observed that “the word ‘religion’ itself, naturally associated with Catholicism by Quebecers, has become off-putting, evoking the so-called authoritative arguments and the more or less subtle imposition of an imperialist way of thinking.”
Father Benoît Lacroix, a well-known clerical figure in the Quebec media landscape, admits that the perception of non-religious people exerts a degree of pressure on young Catholics. “In general, young people are now afraid to make commitments of all kinds, be they religious, political or other,” he observes. “As a result, many of them think of observant young people as being ‘followers,’ or even a little backwards. It must be admitted that what we hear all the time in the media reinforces that vision.”
For those who chose to devote their lives to Christianity, the reaction of incomprehension, even marginalization, seems more pronounced. That was the experience of Marie-Ève Mador, age 24, who, while continuing to study at Université de Montréal, is on her way to becoming a nun at Notre-Dame du Saint-Rosaire.
“It’s always hard for others to understand. When I told a friend that I wanted to follow my vocation and become a nun, she simply said, ‘This time, I don’t understand you at all.’” She notes that after a while, however, people “accept without too much difficulty,” and that by talking it out, they even end up understanding the reasons behind her decision.
“In fact,” she comments, “the bad impression that other young people have just comes from their lack of understanding of religion. For most of them, they only know what their parents have told them, which in many cases is negative.”
“Religion is a way of approaching life according
to your values”
In Quebec, the situation is highly paradoxical. There is an obvious gap between identifying with Catholicism and practising the religion. A survey taken in 2001 shows that Quebec is the province with the lowest rate of religious practice in Canada. At the same time, the survey shows that Quebecers still identify most strongly with the Roman Catholic religion, even through 83.2% of them no longer go to mass.
The same paradox can be observed among young Quebecers. A survey taken in late 1989 for the Canadian Youth Foundation among young people aged 15 to 24 revealed that 93% of young Quebecers from Catholic families continued to identify with the Catholic faith. However, despite the high degree of identification, only 17% of them attended mass weekly and 7% said they were active members of their local parish. Only 1 young person in 10 stated that religion is very important to them.
Father Lacroix explains that young people have been obliged to adapt their practices to contemporary reality. A case in point: the Church itself has lost its notoriety, replaced by the message of Christianity. “It’s even more striking among young people today. Those I meet are observers who return to the basic message, to what is written in the Gospel. In other words, they take away the lace to find the fabric. The Church of the old days was a church of obligation. Today, the Church is one of choice,” he says. Jonathan Blais agrees. “It’s not about following the exact details of catechism like people used to do, but more about taking a hand-on approach. That doesn’t mean we have a looser faith, just that our faith is more open.”
The movement to adapt religious practice thus reflects a certain individualism. Action before contemplation and obligation, summarizes Jonathan. “Religion is not a recipe or instructions that you have to follow; it’s more like a way of approaching life according to your values,” he observes. But what are those values? Marie-Ève and Jonathan give the same answer: “Respect for others, respect for human dignity, open-mindedness.”
Taking back Christianity
Photo by Gunther Gamper
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The sense of detachment from traditional practices is now very apparent. Young people adapt Christianity to suit themselves and their lifestyles. The break with the past takes the form of an individualized practice that now revolves around networks that are more like community groups than the conservative, overly structured and hierarchical religious organizations of the past. This community spirit is evident in the many Quebec organizations aimed at young people. For example, Bande FM is a network of young adults aged 18 to 35 who have in common their faith and a deep desire to share it. Located not far from downtown Montréal, in the Saint-Louis-de-France parish, Bande FM—“FM” stands for “faith” and “mission”—is a parish group that organizes activities, meetings and conferences on various subjects related to life in society. Since its foundation nearly a decade ago, it has also become a place of residence for university and college students who wish to live a religious experience on a daily basis.
When asked to offer his viewpoint on religious practices among young people, Alain Mongeau, head of the network and parish priest, answers, “Faith is practised more secretly than before, that’s for sure. In Quebec, you could say that faith went through a teenage crisis. There was a period of opposition that occurred in order to break free of an authority. Even today, many people still hold a grudge against religion, without even having any contact with it. In fact, the rejection crisis is characterized by profound ignorance.”
According to the 42-year-old priest, who only discovered faith at the age of 23, this situation is not without impact on young Quebecers who wish to continue to believe and practise Christianity. “They live with the heartache of going through a wonderful experience that they cannot share.” The shift towards community is typical of all young people, not just practising Catholics, says Raymond Lemieux. “You have to understand that young people are facing an anomic world. Moreover, they have access to ambitions without having the means to fulfill them. So the need to come together is very real. Some of them choose to turn to religion.”
Without a doubt, the high point for these community groups occurs during World Youth Day (WYD), which has been organized annually by the Catholic Church since 1984 and now lasts a week. This “Christian Woodstock” attracts millions of young people. It is a highly mediatized event that sends a message to the entire world that Catholic youth is indeed alive and even thriving.
However, while many people identify with such events, WYD cannot be considered an accurate representation of the way young people live their faith on a daily basis, according to Jonathan Blais. “Above all, in my opinion,” he says, “it is an event, a gathering place.”
In an article published in Le Devoir during the 2005 World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany, Jean-Philippe Perreault, a doctoral student in theology at Université Laval, wrote, “The WYDs remain a marginal phenomenon. (…) The presence of 7,000 young Canadians in Cologne, while viewed as unprecedented, represents a participation rate of only 0.2% among Canadians who call themselves Catholic and are at an age when they could participate. By the same token, in 2002, when the event was held in Toronto, the rate of participation among young Quebecers was only 0.4%. That means that while young people are absent from churches, their participation in WYD is quantitatively even less significant.”
However, while the comeback of the community approach—“not to be confused with communitarianism”—is an established fact, Raymond Lemieux insists that it is not the only path young people take in terms of religion. He distinguishes three types of commitment: 1) young people who turn to Christianity to find a community of belonging in which they will be able to live out their desire for commitment; 2) young people are in an open-ended search, looking for a meaning to life; and lastly, 3) young people who use the religious sphere to withdraw from the world. Unfortunately, he notes, “that is a kind of fundamentalism that we’re seeing more and more often.”
Translated by Christine York.
To learn more:
GUILLEBAUD, Jean-Claude. La Force de convictions. Seuil, 2005.
LAROUCHE, Jean-Marc and Guy Ménard, eds. L’étude de la religion au Québec: Bilan et prospective. Presses de l’Université Laval, 1992.
PERREAULT, Jean-Philippe. “Le mystère JMJ,” Le Devoir, August 23, 2005.
VAILLANCOURT, Jean-Guy et al. Catholicisme et société contemporaine. Special issue of Sociologie et sociétés, Vol. XXII, No. 2, Presses de l’Université de Montréal, 1990.
* Alain Mongeau, priest at the Saint-Louis-de-France parish, celebrates mass.
** Members of the Bande FM in the company of Alain Mongeau.
This article is part of a series on the diversity of values and religious beliefs in colleges and universities and is presented with the financial support of:
