François Legault, this Easter Monday, thought of making amends by specifying a few minutes before noon that it was necessary to distinguish secularism and heritage. And this, because he had quoted early in the morning on his Twitter account Mathieu Bock-Côté, who thus entitled his column of April 7 in The Journal of Montreal“Praise of our old Catholic background”, and who wrote there: “Catholicism has also engendered in us a culture of solidarity which distinguishes us on a continental scale”.
The Prime Minister’s tweet had, indeed, quickly sown controversy. He received over 1,000 mostly negative responses, many of them from other Quebec politicians. He is accused of preaching for two things that are claimed to be contradictory, namely secularism and Catholicism. Let’s add that this happens just days after the National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion banning prayer in schools, regardless of religion, in the name of state secularism.
In fact, and this is my opinion, following these reactions to François Legault’s tweet, one must ask oneself whether, by adopting Bill 21 and therefore the secularism model of prohibition, it is the prohibition to praise a religion in Quebec for any reason whatsoever, even laudable and historically attested, which seems to become the supreme moral law in matters of secularism. To ignore this obligation for the Prime Minister who passed this law was, obviously in the eyes of these secular Internet users, at best, an act of “self-peeling-of-bananization”.
In these circumstances, where claiming pride in our Catholic religious heritage amounts to a form of secular apostasy, the Prime Minister has two options. Either he accepts to pass for an inconsequential, or he questions his model of secularism based on prohibition.
Because the ban on religion, obviously, is not moderate as it wanted it to be with Bill 21. Moreover, the Liberal Party of Quebec and Quebec solidaire, doubting this moderation in the facts, had initially refused to support this law in the name of respect for fundamental rights. Yet they supported the Parti Québécois motion last week when it came to banning prayer rooms in high schools. Like what, the prohibition to which can be summed up too easily Quebec secularism can be very tempting to use, the occasion making the thief, and for political reasons, to all the anti-religious sauces.
Crucifix
But questioning this model of secularism based on prohibition could mean nothing less for François Legault than bringing the crucifix back to the National Assembly, this singular object of our religious heritage which has been present there for 83 years, and before which was passed law 21 of secularism on June 16, 2019, before it was therefore withdrawn on July 9 as the first victim of the ban, secular morality obliges.
But, to bring it back, it would have to have the audacity, by passing a motion to this effect, to symbolically deactivate its religious function, and at the same time that of all the religious symbols worn by people in public institutions. including that of the cross on our flag; and subsequently give Quebec, by revising Bill 21, a truly distinctive model of secularism. Especially if we brought to this crucifix, through this same motion, three of our highly ancestral and unifying values, namely freedom, fidelity and sharing.
Of course, as a consequence, this crucifix thus secularized would become the guarantee of Quebec tolerance with regard to religion while honorably placing the secularism of the State above religions rather than against them as is presently sees, distinct society obliges.
But will François Legault dare to place himself at this height, or will he simply choose to be silent and therefore, consequently, to forbid himself forever from writing on Twitter that he is proud of our Catholic religious heritage? ?