A small village in Charlevoix is fighting to keep its church, the last vestige of its community life. For eight years, a handful of people in the prime of life have been mobilizing to preserve this place where, for more than 150 years, the births, loves and deaths of Saint-Placide have been celebrated.
It’s a story that has become almost commonplace in today’s Quebec. A rural community built around its church sees faith eroding and parishioners slowly but surely deserting masses. Driven by an apparently implacable financial logic, the community quietly watches its church wither away, then disappear, eaten away by bad weather or razed by the pick of the wreckers.
In Saint-Placide, people refuse this fatality. In this village lying for nearly two centuries in the valleys of Charlevoix, the community of barely 400 souls refuses to watch its church disappear and does everything in its power to avoid becoming a “dormitory row” among many others.
“If the church closes, we will no longer have a meeting place,” explains Maurice Bouchard, a native of Les Éboulements but established since 2001 in Saint-Placide. At his side, Anne-Marie Simard, who has lived in the village for nearly four decades, nods. “It would be the heart of the village that would stop beating. »
A mobilized community
The two are part of a committee that has been trying, since 2015, to reverse the fate with a lot of dinner-tourtières, thematic masses, garage sales and rallies between neighbors to finance the survival of the small church erected in 1860. .
“During a mass in 2015, the priest told us that the sale was imminent,” recalls Claire-Lise Éminet, also a member of the committee. He explained to us that he needed $5,000 a year to make it work. We said to ourselves: “You don’t sell a church for $5,000; we will find them for you!” »
This is what the community has managed to do for five years. Between 2015 and 2020, this small village of barely 200 houses managed to raise nearly $20,000 through various fundraising activities.
However, the pandemic cut the wings of this community momentum. “COVID stopped everything and we weren’t able to resume afterwards because in the meantime, some committee members got sick, others got old or lost the desire to get involved, indicates Mme Eminet. Others also died. »
Deprived of money and counting on barely a few priests to provide worship in the immensity of Charlevoix, from Baie-Saint-Paul to Baie-Sainte-Catherine, the parish of Saint-François-d’Assise finally put a padlock on the door of the church of Saint-Placide in January.
Last chance offer
The fate seemed cast…until a resident of the village offered to buy the church to convert it into a community center. “This person decided that his mission, in life, was this: to save the church, explains Claire-Lise Éminet. Behind this purchase, there will be an NPO that will manage the center. »
There will also be “a very small part” devoted to worship, she continues, even if the men of the Church are even rarer than the faithful in the region. “Currently, continues M.me Éminet has a parish priest and two priests who assist him throughout Charlevoix, from here to Baie-Sainte-Catherine. It’s a huge territory. »
Nothing to discourage, however, the small smart community of Saint-Placide: “Even if the priests are not there, we will be there, underlines Mme Eminet. We are going to celebrate them ourselves, our masses! »
Negotiations are underway between the purchaser and the parish. The latter is busy drawing up the state of health of the church of Saint-Placide to submit it to the diocese of Quebec. The latter will entrust the study of the proposal to three working tables: the Presbyteral Council for the pastoral aspect, the College of Consultors for the requalification of the building and the Economic Affairs Council for the financial aspect.
“So you need a little patience,” says Valérie Roberge-Dion, of the Diocese of Quebec, by email. It’s our way of helping to ensure consistency in decision-making regarding our more than 220 places of worship. The legal aspects, she adds, also need to be checked. »
Even if the church of Saint-Placide turns out to be in deficit for the parish, it is out of the question to sell it off to the community to avoid repeating “unfortunate precedents”. It has already happened, underlines Valérie Roberge-Dion, that an “organization which had taken charge of a church sold for $1 failed and quickly resold the site to promoters, this time at its market value”. Since then, the diocese has wanted to ensure the solidity of the conversion projects presented.
In memory of the past
In Saint-Placide, the church maintenance committee refuses to believe that the latter could, one day, belong to anyone other than the community. Guy Côté has lived in the village since the day of his birth: he saw Saint-Placide first lose its parish hall in the 1980s, then, little by little, the few gathering places where the community still managed to weave .
Only the church remains today, built thanks to the sweat “of the old”, he explains, to welcome the joys and sorrows of the village.
“It was my grandfather and my father who built that church. My brothers volunteered here, me too… The baptisms of my three children took place there, those of my nephews, nieces, and so on as well, says the 65-year-old man. Our daughter had her wedding here, my father had his funeral in the church last year at 95. The reality is that it was my family and the family of everyone here who brought it to life. It is not the archdiocese that makes the churches exist: it is the parishioners! »
The Church Survival Committee admits that if the deal fails with the diocese, there is no plan B to ensure its preservation. His fear is to see a private buyer seize the land in their place to erect a retirement home or condos on the ruins of their church.
“Another building would not have that meaning: it would take away the strength and the memory of the families who built it, believes Maurice Bouchard. We don’t want to erase what remains of the past: our church is part of the community. »