Decline in Catholic Power

Canada 70 sociologists point out: “It was inevitable that the Catholic Church would some day have to relinquish its complete control of the people, and in Quebec the Church’s loss of power was sudden and dramatic.”

The Montreal Star carried the following account by writer Ralph Surette: “The power of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec has disintegrated; anguish and indifference on the part of both laity and clergy betray a state of crisis . . . The crisis is known. The commission takes as given (and confirms) what is common knowledge: that attendance at mass has dropped drastically, that priests are leaving, that many parishes are in financial trouble.”

The same article points to the impact on the clergy, saying: “Clericalism as an absolute power started to crumble at this time [1949], paving the way for the state to become the prime institution in Quebec life in the 1960’s. . . . Over relatively few years, the Quebec priest has lost ‘both his social status and his audience.’”

So serious had become the problems of the Catholic Church that at the request of the bishops a government commission, the Dumont Commission, was appointed to investigate the “Laity and the Church.” The Commission’s 315-page report was released in December 1971, and mostly confirmed what well-informed people already knew: that the Church had lost the confidence of the people; that the clergy and laity are both leaving the Church.

As far as the people of Quebec are concerned, the common view often expressed is: ‘The Church has disappeared.’

“Leaving the Church in Droves”

Ultimately a church depends on the support of the people. The Dumont Report tells what has happened from this aspect of Catholic life: “During the last ten years, religious practice has dropped rapidly. It is most evident among the young, but the decline reaches progressively and more quietly the older people.”

Just how rapidly is shown by Relations, the Montreal publication for priests, which stated in March 1974: In ten years Sunday church attendance has dropped from 65 percent to 30 percent; and, among the young, between 15 and 35 years of age, it has gone down to 12 percent.

Bishop Léo Blais of Westmount has stated publicly that “the faithful are leaving the church in droves.”

There is also a serious problem of replacements in the priesthood. Seminaries for training priests have been closed in Nicolet, Joliette, Rimouski and Sherbrooke. The buildings are being used by the government for community colleges and, at Nicolet, for a police school.

Figures respecting candidates for the priesthood are revealing. The Dumont Report shows: “The annual figure of candidates for holy orders (priests and others) in our Church in 1946 was over 2,000, but in 1970 a little over a hundred.”

Relations stated in March 1974: “In 1968 the recruiting of priests began to drop rapidly . . . Many pastors are leaving the ministry. At the same time the recruiting of ministers has reached a minimum:3 new seminary students this year.” This is for Montreal, a diocese claiming 1,700,000 Catholics, more than one third of the church membership in the province.

Membership in Catholic organizations is also declining fast. The Sacred Heart League, which had 28,000 members 10 years ago, now has only 3,000.

Apart from the spiritual problems and personnel problems, there is also the difficulty in Quebec of simply maintaining the churches. Many of them are on the verge of bankruptcy.

A number of well-known churches in the city of Montreal have been demolished and the property used for other purposes. One of these is the Church of Notre-Dame-d’Alexandrie on Amherst Street. In this case the priest, Benjamin Tremblay, was happy to see his church being destroyed by the demolition crew. But why was he happy?

He is reported publicly to have said that the Church must now occupy itself with social and economic life in the area and that the new center will help the economically depressed section in which it stands. He had said earlier that it would be better to sell these churches than to keep “white elephants.” Eleven large Catholic churches have closed in Montreal since 1967, while others are slated either to be sold or to be wrecked.

Causes of Catholic Decline

What has happened? What led to the dramatic decline of Catholic power?

Lack of confidence in Catholic leadership has led to much uncertainty and this is not confined to Quebec. Andrew M. Greeley, a Jesuit critic of the U.S. hierarchy, has commented: “Honesty compels me to say that I believe the present leadership of the church is morally, intellectually and religiously bankrupt. We do not have the leaders who can communicate a sense of direction to us.”

The Canada 70 sociologists found within the Church in Quebec “an enormous credibility gap. The gap had reached such proportions that the laity found reason to suspect virtually all the movements within the hierarchy of the church.”

Bishop Léo Blais, already quoted, has also pointed to the clergy. According to him, some priests are presently sources of confusion in the Church in Montreal. Bishop Blais suggested that it is “our lack of discipline and our disobedience which has caused confusion in their minds and led many Catholics astray.”

“Is the Church Dead?”

“Is the Church Dead?” is a question asked in a headline by the French-language journal La Patrie of Montreal.

In reply, priest Hubert Falardeau said that the popes and bishops “have forgotten that the church was not a temporal society but a spiritual one. They wanted to have quantity of members and not members of quality. To keep people in the church it was necessary to have precepts. The people were not very well educated so they stuffed them full of precepts. All these things​—the feast days, the big ceremonies, were used to draw big numbers of people.”

He further explains: “There is a de-Christianization because there was no real Christianization. When the church started, people were baptized when they were adults. Afterward it was presupposed that everybody was a Christian and they baptized them at birth.”

This Catholic priest now speaks about the need for real Christianization, adult baptism and missionary work among the people. These are the practices strictly adhered to by Jehovah’s witnesses and which have markedly contributed to the success of their activity. No one needs to ask if Jehovah’s witnesses are dead; their action and dedicated missionary work in all parts of the earth are an answer, not in words, but in action!

Jehovah’s witnesses’ engaged in a grass-roots missionary work from door to door among the people of Quebec. When Witness Everett Carlson of Joliette, Quebec, was asked what he observed among the Catholic people that would account for their changed attitude toward the Church, he said: “Since 1970 there has been a marked change in the attitude of the people. They are less afraid to speak to Jehovah’s witnesses, to ask questions and express themselves about the changes in the Church. They readily admit that altered teaching on hell fire, eating meat on Friday and many other things, have shaken their faith.”

It should be remembered that, while the Roman Church has lost much of its almost sovereign power in Quebec, it would be inaccurate to leave the impression that it has completely departed the scene. Younger people have in great measure withdrawn their support, but the older generation of both clergy and laity continue to give the Church a still not inconsiderable following. Ritual and habit die hard.

The Religious Vacuum: Who Can Fill It?

Any sudden removal of the core of a society leaves an empty space. So what has happened in Quebec following the sudden decline of the power of the Catholic Church?

Montreal Star writer Ralph Surette comments: “The Catholic Church has been at the core of French Canadian society for 300 years . . . What happens when that kind of power vanishes? . . . anguish and indifference on the part of both laity and clergy have sprung in the place where the Church once stood firm.”

So who or what can fill this religious vacuum? Who is ready to supply the need of the people for spiritual comfort and Bible instruction? Most religions in Canada have in times past been afraid to expand in Quebec for fear of the dominant Catholic hierarchy. As a result they are not equipped to fill the religious need that now exists.

However, there is one notable exception! For the past fifty years Jehovah’s witnesses have continued unfailingly in good times and bad to show their loving concern for the French-Canadian people. They have offered Bible instruction and spiritual comfort to all who desired it. Jehovah’s witnesses are solidly established in Quebec, having now 130 congregations and over 7,000 persons actively participating in giving Bible instruction. They are ready and able to fill the religious vacuum. But can they command the confidence of the people?

Respect and Confidence Have Been Earned

It has now become abundantly evident that the opposition to Jehovah’s witnesses formerly manifest among the Quebec populace was caused by misinformation sponsored by the clerical and political leaders of the time. In the meantime the people have become acquainted with Jehovah’s witnesses firsthand and now take a much different view.

A French-Canadian columnist, André Rufiange, writing in Le Journal de Montreal of July 30, 1973, said: “Duplessis must have turned over in his grave, he who treated Jehovah’s witnesses as scarecrows and who convinced us, in school at the time, that they were a sect of evildoers . . . I am not a Witness. But I am a witness to the fact that the Witnesses witness to efficiency and proper behaviour. . . . Really very nice people. If they were the only people in the world, we would not at night have to bolt our doors shut and put on the burglar alarm.”

Jehovah’s witnesses and their peaceful practice of Bible instruction in the homes of the people are now a well-recognized and accepted part of the Quebec scene. Often householders ask them: ‘The Church has disappeared. What happens next? Where do we go from here?’ Having lost confidence in the long-dominant Church, many Quebeckers are now turning to Jehovah’s witnesses as the only people seriously interested in their personal problems and religious needs.

Their organization is growing numerically as well as in quality and maturity. Over the last decade Jehovah’s witnesses have sponsored a French-language school in Montreal that has already given basic French-language training to more than 1,200 individuals, who have moved from other parts of Canada to serve where the need is greater in that part of the field.

Additionally, in the summer of 1974, Jehovah’s witnesses released a translation of the Bible in modern French, available at a figure within the reach of everyone. Everything possible is being done for the spiritual encouragement of the Quebec people. Jehovah’s witnesses often remark how much they enjoy working among these interesting and stimulating people.

Confirming the gaining of respect, Georges Bherer, writer for Le Soleil of Quebec City, published his observations after attending the “Divine Purpose” assembly there in August 1974: “Jehovah’s witnesses have experienced a staggering increase in the province of Quebec over the last few years. . . .

“For the witness of Jehovah, religion is a way of life and not a collection of ceremonies. Placing emphasis on honesty and moral purity, they preach that Christ is really the Son of God and that all hope of future life depends on the faith one exercises in him. They believe that in the very near future, in our own generation, God’s kingdom will destroy the present evil system.”

The success and effectiveness of the activity of Jehovah’s witnesses in Quebec has itself contributed to the respect and confidence of the people of Quebec. The Montreal newspaper Le Petit Journal, July 28, 1974, has publicly pointed to the religious decline on one side and progress on the other, stating: “While traditional religions are on the wane, with churches getting emptier all the time, Jehovah’s witnesses are experiencing increased membership and are even purchasing former church buildings and other facilities in which to gather their new members.

“Whereas they only had 356 members [in Quebec] in 1945, they numbered about 7,000 across the province in 1974, divided into 120 congregations who reach 125 towns.

“In 1973 the witnesses of Jehovah saw their numbers increase by 22 percent. Because of this big increase of witnesses in Quebec several halls and churches were purchased to provide meeting places. The most important building purchase in the Montreal district is the Dorémi dance hall at Saint Luc which can seat 1,800 people.” The property at Saint Luc, Quebec, has become an Assembly Hall of Jehovah’s witnesses.

The town of Joliette, Quebec, used to be a special center for Roman Catholicism. An immense seminary was one of the most dominant structures in the town. Missionaries of Jehovah’s witnesses were driven out by Catholic riots in 1949.​—See Awake!, April 8, 1950.

Now there is an active congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses in Joliette with a fine Kingdom Hall on one of the main thoroughfares. Meanwhile the seminary has been purchased by the government and turned into a community college. This former seminary has twice been used by Jehovah’s witnesses for their semiannual circuit assemblies.

Roland Gagnon was a Joliette businessman who, in 1949, formed part of the mob that drove Jehovah’s witnesses out of town. At present he is a member of the Joliette congregation of Jehovah’s witnesses.

Now that they know Jehovah’s witnesses better, many of the naturally friendly and vivacious French Canadians have changed and are showing their confidence and respect by responding to the encouraging Bible information offered to them.

But how is this teaching affecting the lives of the people who accept it?

People Being Helped

Many are the pressures of this unstable world. Problems are universal, but especially does youth need help. This is being provided by Jehovah’s witnesses. The following news heading from Montreal’s La Patrie of July 28, 1974, focuses on some of the good work being done: “YOUNG HIPPIE DOPE ADDICTS RESCUED BY JEHOVAH’S WITNESSES.”

The article explains how four young former drug addicts, three men and one woman, became Jehovah’s witnesses, cleaned up their persons as well as their moral practices. Pictures were published showing how each looked before and after becoming Jehovah’s witnesses. The “before” pictures showed long-haired, unkempt youths; the “after” showed four clean-cut young persons.

The article by reporter Andrée Le Bel comments: “Their life style has greatly changed because they say they have at last found a purpose in life to which they can devote all their energies . . . All of Jehovah’s witnesses are agreed that practicing Bible principles in daily life improves moral conduct and the quality of life.”

Another young man, a Catholic from Montreal, had allowed his life to be swallowed up in gambling. “One night while I was at the races, my brother-in-law and his wife visited my home and left two copies of the book The Truth That Leads to Eternal Life with my wife,” he writes. “When I got home she explained what she had learned about the end of this system being very close and that those who do not take sides with Jehovah will be destroyed. She suggested I read the little blue book, which was opened to page 94. She got through to me, because I was really upset about the way I was carrying on and I knew I had to change. My conscience bothered me so much that I couldn’t sleep at night.

“I read the little book the next day, and that evening asked my brother-in-law to study with me. Now I am happy to be among Jehovah’s witnesses with my wife.”

These are just some of the experiences of those who have been helped by the preaching and teaching work of Jehovah’s witnesses. Such happy examples could be multiplied many times.

What appeal of Jehovah’s witnesses reaches the hearts of so many? It is the simple and uncomplicated Bible message that the government of Jehovah God and his Son Christ Jesus is about to take over the rule of the earth from the present stumbling systems. This government will make changes that result in happiness and life to all those who qualify to live in such new order.