Prof. Denise Réaume - "‘Dead hand of the Church’ evident in Quebec’s debate on values"

The latest round of initiatives by the Parti Québécois government to secularize Quebec has been weighing on me. Heavily.

It is not just that it is wrong, though it is that. Neutrality requires the state to be neutral not only as between religions, but between religious expression and the rejection of religion. The PQ’s “Charter of Values” officially proclaims the rejection of religion by barring its symbolic expression by public employees.

It is also not just that it is counterproductive, though it is that, too. One would think that Québécois, who know what it to feels like to be victimized by people they think do not understand their culture, would see that the religiously observant will respond the same way to this provocation. Those worst affected – women – are the ones backers of the policy say they want to help. How this attack on the cherished beliefs and practices of some of the province’s residents is supposed to produce peace and unity is anyone’s guess.

But many people share these misgivings. There is something else nagging at me. I feel tarnished by the actions of the Quebec government, though I am not a resident of the province.

I feel that Quebec is somehow acting in my name even though I have no political connection to the province and do not even get a chance to vote against this policy. I feel implicated as someone from French-Canadian stock, though my family history involves only distant and transient connection to that pocket of French Canada that is modern Quebec. But I recognize the insularity that seems bred in the bone in French-Canadian culture, wherever it has taken root in Canada.

I share that tradition; I understand its pull. I trace it to the influence of the Catholic Church as a leading force shaping French-Canadian culture over the centuries. The Church’s philosophy has too often been to welcome converts but discourage mixing with distinct “others.” It requires constant effort and critical self-awareness to combat the temptation to embrace insularity. It’s not impossible, and many rise to the challenge, but it takes work. In some ways, the Church itself has been doing some of this work. The Quebec government has opted for backsliding.

Ironic, isn’t it? In the name of secularism and the rejection of a religiously claustrophobic past, Quebec now pursues a policy that re-enacts that intolerance. The priests have changed, but not the philosophy. The dead hand of the Catholic Church is a drag upon the Quebec cultural psyche.

Of course, in some parts of the province, the attachment to the Church never waned. I expect that these Québécois understand the new Charter of Values to mean business as usual, despite the mantra of secularism. Retaining the crucifix in the National Assembly – otherwise completely unintelligible – is meant to reassure them. Their old ways are safe.

The surprise, perhaps, is that the political and social elites who long ago stopped going to Church have never really left it.