Lacroix announced he would step back into his role as archbishop of Quebec and primate of Canada in a July 22 news release posted to the Archdiocese of Quebec's website. He will preside over Mass on July 26 at the Sanctuary of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré for the feast of St Anne.

The cardinal's voluntary absence began in late January when abuse allegations surfaced as part of a class action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec surrounding alleged historical abuse cases. Lacroix has denied any wrongdoing, but the Vatican hired retired Quebec judge André Denis to investigate the claims made against Cardinal Lacroix.

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Architectural historian Luc Noppen says all Quebec's Catholic parishes "are at the end of their tether".

"Three or four times a day, we learn of the closure of one or another".

Of the Canadian province's 2,746 churches in 2003, 713 have been destroyed, closed or converted, a fact shown by religious heritage council records.

The Catholic Archdiocese of Quebec City is also seeing an acceleration of church closures.

This is "due to the decrease in the number of Catholics, our resources, and the increase in maintenance costs" the archdiocese says.

Church building ownership in Quebec

Church buildings are owned by local corporations managed by the parishioners.

Over the past 40 years though, Church membership has declined significantly.

As a result, churches have been closed or sold.

Unfortunately, heritage buildings sold in good condition can end up being neglected and then - because of their progressively sorry and unsafe state - they end up being demolished.

One example of this happened in Quebec City to Saint-Cœur-de-Marie Church (pictured), "a jewel" of neo-Byzantine architecture says Noppen.

Other notable churches in the city have also been destroyed recently.

In 2020 Quebec's auditor general, who oversees parliamentary control of public funds, denounced the province's inaction to protect its real estate and religious heritage.

Cited were a "lack of vision and an absence of results… and coherence" that leaves municipalities to fend for themselves.

Even with additional funding, parishes can't always continue to pay the bills and disastrous consequences follow.

If an incident occurs that requires new expenses, for instance, a parish sometimes has no choice but to close before the restoration is complete.

Ways and means

Quebec's religious heritage council would like increased funding to better meet parish needs.

Lacking the resources to save parish buildings, cities can be tempted not to oppose demolition to allow private real estate development and thus more tax revenue.

Demolition is never the first solution considered by parishes.

Rather, they prefer to forge partnerships with municipalities so that the churches can remain open for worship while finding other functions for them, without major transformation.

But for that to happen, "support from the different levels of government is not enough", a Quebec City archdiocese official says.

Citizens' demands that municipalities save churches are leading to their buying places of worship to protect them.

Municipalities share of ownership has risen from 17% to 24% over nine years, while at the same time private owners' share has risen from 17% to 24%.

They can then decide to change their use, partially or totally.

This can work well though.

In one case in a village, a former church became a rock-climbing gym and a municipal library - while still holding Masses.

In doing so, life returned to the village with the church at its centre.

Source

• La Croix
• Image: HipPostcard

He has asked parishes in the Archdiocese of Quebec to "pause" their catechetical programs and use the time to think of the future.

Lacroix says the last few months have given the Quebec church an "unhoped-for opportunity" to "begin anew."

"Fewer and fewer of our brothers and sisters in Quebec are Christians. This cannot leave us indifferent. It is urgent that we evangelize and form (people) to Christian life. We must realize that our methods and ways of doing things do not bear the fruits we expect."

He went on to tell parishes that if they haven't begun catechesis with children and young people to prepare them for the sacraments of Christian initiation, to take a break.

"Let's at least give ourselves the autumn to reflect together," he told them.

"Time and space" is necessary to discern the next steps to implement "the priority of formation to Christian life for adults," Lacroix told parishes.

"I know that this request is going to create a certain stir."

"But without this pause, we know that it will not be possible to make in-depth changes, changes that are necessary."

Although Lacroix would like parishes to take up his suggestion, he has not imposed a "moratorium" on catechesis.

He hopes the pause will facilitate a "transformation" in favour of focusing on "the Christian initiation of adults."

"We're going to give ourselves time to ask ourselves how we're going to work directly with adults, and by ricochet, with families," a spokesperson for the Archdiocese says.

This pause would not affect baptisms or marriages even if, one day, pastoral approaches to these sacraments is reviewed.

The director of Quebec's Catechesis Office calls Lacroix's request "daring."

Bishops don't usually ask to put catechesis on hold, she says.

The attention given to adults is important.

Catechesis is to be conceived beyond its stereotype of sacramental preparation, so it can be "for all ages" and become "an opportunity to listen to what resonates in oneself and in one's experience," she says.

A theologian who has worked many times on the sacraments of Christian initiation says he has hoped for such a move for many years.

"To put it bluntly, if, after the pause required by the archbishop," catechesis "does not start again having assumed these two changes — offering faith rather than just the sacraments, and deploying a solid catechesis for adults — then the pause will have been useless," Daniel Laliberte says.

He thinks the Church hasn't been able to initiate change mainly because few people are able to propose a plan that clearly indicates the objective and the steps to do it.

"Whether we like it or not, times have changed so much that the church, confined to its practices, has seen its credibility seriously eroded, so much so that it is at odds with today's world," he says.

A "missionary church" committed to fraternal love and dignity is made visible, he says.

Source

• Catholic News Service
• Image: The Catholic register

The new criteria will enable people to be euthanised if they can't give informed consent or who will die of an illness in the more distant future.

These include people suffering from Alzheimer's disease and other degenerative conditions.

Presently, Quebec permits euthanasia for terminally ill adult residents with an incurable disease who are undergoing great suffering, face imminent death, and give informed consent.

The Canadian province's current law took effect in December 2015.

During the period from 10 December 2015 to 31 March 2018, 1,664 citizens were euthanised.

Véronique Hivon, a member of the Quebec legislature of the Pari Quebecois, introduced the province's existing euthanasia law.

She says the criteria adopted then were necessary for its passage: "We didn't want to lose the consensus. We had to listen to what people had to say.

"...It should be possible to expand the option of medical assistance to die, for those not apt to make that decision, because a third person would be charged with following through on the wishes of the dying patient."

Euthanasia and assisted suicide were legalised federally in Canada in June 2016.

Questions over the imprecision of the country's requirements, from family of patients, disability advocates, pro-life groups, and bioethicists, have followed.

Eligibility is restricted to mentally competent Canadian adults who have a serious, irreversible illness, disease, or disability.

Although a patient does not have to have a fatal condition to qualify, they must meet a criterion expressed in various ways.

Some legislation says the patient "can expect to die in the near future", or that natural death is "reasonably foreseeable" or in the "not too distant" future, or that they are "declining towards death".

Health Canada says among the eligibility criteria for euthanasia or assisted suicide requires the patient to "have a grievous and irremediable medical condition" and "give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying".

In addition, the Canadian health ministry says the patient "must be mentally competent and capable of making decisions" both "at the time of [their] request" and "immediately before medical assistance in dying is provided."

The national health ministry says there are safeguards to insure that those requesting euthanasia or assisted suicide "are able to make health care decisions for themselves" and "request the service of their own free will".

Source

• Catholic News Agency
• Image: CTV News Montreal

The new law (formerly known as Bill 21) prohibits some government employees, including public school teachers, state lawyers, judges and police officers from wearing religious symbols or clothing.

However, the religious symbol prohibitions will apply only to people employed after the law was passed. Established employees will be able to wear religious symbols while they keep their current jobs.

It also includes a notwithstanding clause overriding some parts of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, mainly those about religious liberties. This clause shields it from too many legal challenges.

Some last-minute amendments concerning surveillance provisions have made the law more stringent than anticipated.

Quebec's government says it wants to strengthen separation of the state and religions, religious neutrality of the state, equality of all citizens and freedom of conscience and religion.

Most religious groups — including Christians and Muslims — were not invited to participate in the hearings about Bill 21 when it was being debated at a National Assembly commission in May.

While Catholic bishops have said they agree with the idea of promoting a secular state, they have also said they are concerned the law should not be at the expense of fundamental religious rights.

"We believe that it's better to fight prejudices and fear in a rational way, by educating people about the diversity of religious, spiritual and cultural experiences and traditions, rather than by prohibitions," they said before Bill 21 was passed into law.

Canada's National Council of Canadian Muslims says it will legally challenge the new law.

"Late last night the Quebec government legalised discrimination on the basis of religion," the National Council says. It calls the last-minute amendments about the surveillance provisions of workplaces "deeply troubling."

"This creates a second-class citizenship," a National Council spokesman says. The Council will seek a court injunction to block the law that the spokesman calls "a recipe for the politics of fear."

Quebec Premier Francois Legault says Quebecers have been expecting such a law "for a long time" and that they clearly want to prohibit religious symbols for "people with (state) authority."

Opposition leader Pierre Arcand says said this new "botched" law "removes" rights for people.

"Waking up with fewer rights for people that I love in a place that I love," a Montreal rabbi says. "It's worse than we had expected. There will be lots of legal challenges."

Source

• Reuters
• Catholic Herald
• Image: VideoHive

The preamble to Bill 21, entitled "An Act respecting the laicity of the State," explains the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government's motivation.

It says the Quebec nation "has its own characteristics, one of which is its civil law tradition, distinct social values and a specific history that [has] led it to develop a particular attachment to state laicity."

Secularity should be "affirmed in a manner that ensures a balance between the collective rights of the Quebec nation and human rights and freedom."

The preamble also notes Quebec "attaches importance to the equality of women and men".

The bill says laicity is based on four principles:

• The separation of state and religions
• The religious neutrality of the state
• The equality of all citizens and freedom of conscience
• Freedom of religion.

If it becomes law, public workers in positions of authority would be banned from wearing religious symbols.

The CAQ Minister of Immigration says all religious symbols regardless of size would be prohibited. However, religious tattoos or Rastafarian dreadlocks did not count as religious symbols.

The bill would directly affect:

• Public employees who carry weapons, including: police officers, courthouse constables, bodyguards, prison guards and wildlife officers
• Crown prosecutors, government lawyers and judges
• School principals, vice-principals and teachers.

The bill includes a clause exempting those already wearing religious symbols from removing them as long as they hold the same job.

In addition, the bill proposes rules for citizens who apply for public services: they will have to uncover their faces for identification or security purposes. This could affect people using public transit cards on municipal services.

Other citizens who will be directly impacted include doctors, dentists and midwives in public institutions, subsidised daycare workers and school boards.

The previous Liberal government passed a law with similar requirements, but the relevant sections remain suspended following a court challenge by civil liberties groups.

The CAQ is getting around this by invoking a so-called "notwithstanding clause".

Officially called Section 33 of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, the clause allows provincial or federal authorities to override certain sections of the charter for a period of five years.

The CAQ also introduced a motion promising to move the crucifix hanging in the National Assembly's main chamber to a different part of the building. The motion passed unanimously.

The crucifix has been hanging above the Speaker's chair since 1936.

A government-commissioned report into secularism and identity issues recommended in 2008 that it be removed, but no government has done so.

Source

• CBC
• CBC
• Image: CBC

Consolidating parishes was not a solution to the lack of priests, theologian and Auxiliary Bishop Marc Pelchat told the 80 people at the conference.

The conference was organised by a lay group Le Parvis de Quebec.

"During a closed hearing at a recent plenary session of bishops, there was talk of the ordination of married men of a certain age, whose ecclesial commitment is tested," Pelchat said.

He noted that in the last decade, demand for sacraments, including even the funeral rite, had declined significantly.

"The church has become like a vestige of the past, destined to be marginalised. The faithful still present believe that there's still Good News to share, but it will have to be done differently. We will have to be persevering."

Participation of the laity in the life of the church was a particular aspect discussed at the conference.

Pelchat noted in Quebec the faithful have always been spectators and consumers, especially regarding the sacraments.

"We need to change this way of doing things. We believe that we can rebuild the church, even if it is more humble, to announce the mission of Christ," he said.

"We are all wondering how to become missionaries in a transforming Quebec, which has severed its ties with its Catholic heritage.

"More and more, we hear the call to set out and engage in a movement of pastoral conversion, including our structures, to reverse the church (dominant) position we have known.

"I have not been trained for today's church, but one has to adjust," he said.

Source

• The Tablet
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Catholic Herald

A report by Agence France Presse said the province has been working up changes for its "charter of values."

The government says its proposal aims to reaffirm "the principle of religious neutrality in state institutions."

Press reports said the move includes a ban on religious symbols among public sector, and semi-public sector, workers.

"One of the responsibilities" of these workers "is to be neutral," the minister in charge of the issue, Bernard Drainville, was quoted as saying.

"The best way to protect the right to equality is by neutrality. The best way to respect the right of all religions is for the state to not have any religion," he said.

Sources

AFP/France 24

Al Jazeera

Image: France 24