The Journal Of Political Studies Volume I, No. 2, Jan. 2014 | Page 43

THE JOURNAL OF POLITICAL STUDIES

VOL. 1

JANUARY 2014

NO. 2

THE DECLINE OF DEVOTION:

FROM CATHOLICISM TO LAÏCITÉ IN QUÉBEC

Aaron Pinto*

You know, way back, everybody here was Catholic, just as in Spain or Ireland. And then, at a very specific moment - it was during the year 1966 - in only a few months, the churches suddenly emptied out. A very strange phenomenon. One that nobody has ever been able to explain.

-Father Raymond Leclere (Gilles Pelletier) in Les invasions barbares

(directed by Denys Arcand; Cinémaginaire, 2003)1

In the space of little more than fifty years, between the end of the Second World War and the close of the twentieth century, the Canadian province of Québec puzzingly went from being one of the most socially traditional, politically conservative, and religiously devout regions of the developed world to one of the very least; becoming a so-called province laïgue, or secular province. As a result, for Catholics in Québec today, let alone adherents of other faiths, religion has come to occupy a different place in their personal consciousness than what

*Aaron Pinto is studying in his final year of Honours International Relations and French at Western University in Canada. His avid interest in global affairs led to his selection as a Junior Team Canada ambassador on a trade and development mission to Central and South America, as well as a domestic mission to the Canadian Arctic.

1. In the original French, the character of the priest says: “Vous savez, ici, autrefois, tout le monde était catholique, comme en Espagne ou en Irlande. Et à un moment très précis, en fait pendant l’année 1966, les églises se sont brusquement vidées, en quelques mois. Un phénomène très étrange, que personne n’a jamais pu expliquer.” Denys Arcand, Les invasions barbares : Scénario (Montréal : Les Éditions du Boréal, 2003). p. 154.

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