INDEPTH: CATHOLICISM IN CANADA
Quebec Catholics
CBC News Online | October 2, 2003
At the church she went to every week as a child, Glynn McGrath remembers climbing that stairs and looking out on hundreds of parishioners.
But no longer.
No more stained glass. No more pews. The church went up for sale last year.
"It is sad. It's a tradition that's lost in this building," says McGrath.
In Montreal alone, 18 Catholic churches have been put up for sale in the past three years. Some were turned into condos, others into dance studios. There wasn't enough money to keep them going.
The Church has always relied on its followers for support but there are fewer followers these days, all across Canada.
Quebec has had the biggest drop. Only 20 per cent of respondents of a survey conducted in 2000 said they attended church on a weekly basis, compared to 88 per cent in the 1950s.
In the past, to be part of Quebec society was to be part of a religious society. The Church controlled almost everything – hospitals, politics and the schools. It influenced generations.
That changed in the 1960s.
Monseigneur Robert Sansoucy saw it happen.
"It wasn't necessarily that those people had a great amount of faith," he says (translated from French). "When the Church left the hospitals, when the Church became less present in the schools, that was the moment when many lost contact with the Church."
A faithful core still attends service regularly, but it's aging. Their children have little interest in weekly mass.
But a new Catholic church is emerging in Quebec, one that breaks traditional barriers. The point now is to focus on faith and spirituality – the physical walls of the Church are less meaningful.
Father Walter Tonelotto's parish has one of the largest youth populations in Montreal. It's a perfect example of where the Church is heading. Kids are drawn in by out-of-church activities, such as late-night preparations for World Youth Day.
"If we give them space, they will come in and start working," says Tonelotto. "But if we do everything our way, the old way, then they stay out."
As more churches close, the old ways are changing. Now there's hope young believers will lead the spirit of the Church to something greater.
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