On December 24, at the age of 93, the soul of Sister Georgette left, without a sound, towards a heaven that she had dedicated her life to praying. Across Quebec, the deaths of nuns are accelerating the march toward extinction for dozens of congregations that have been the beating heart of rural Quebec for decades. Chronicle of a death announced in Saint-Damien-de-Buckland, where the congregation is about to pack up after 130 years of history.
Born in 1928 to a mother who had 17 children, only 6 of whom survived, Ms.me Vallée lived in religion for 71 years, 36 of which were devoted to teaching. “Sister Georgette had a very full life,” confirmed the priest during the funeral ceremony in her memory.
It was before the wear and tear of body and mind consumed the evening of his life. In her moments of lucidity, Sister Georgette wrote notes in the form of a goodbye, intended to be read at her funeral. “My heart remains with you because, as a good Quebecer, I remember,” she wrote to the attention of her congregation.
His urn stood, on March 22, in the heart of a chapel with dazzling gilding and immaculate whiteness. The neat appearance of the place did not hide the fatigue of the Congregation of the Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help (NDPS), whose members, on average, reach 85 years of age. The white hair, the thick glasses and the backs sometimes bent by the weight of the years betrayed the old age of a community that had reached its twilight.
The departure of Georgette Vallée preludes that of her sisters of faith, also destined to leave the land where they were born. At Saint-Damien-de-Buckland, in Bellechasse, the hundred or so nuns who live in the mother house will soon be moving to a residence for seniors in Quebec. Ironically, while the sisters of this congregation have taken care of orphans and abandoned old people for more than a century, it is their turn today to ask for the care of others to watch over their old age. .
“As long as there was a succession, it was fine, explains Madeleine Fillion, the mother superior of the congregation. But there are no more. The oldest among us is 100 years old. Only one is under 60.
Western decline
This decline is western, vertiginous and inevitable. At their peak in the 1960s, congregations in Quebec had close to 50,000 members. Six decades later, they bring together less than 8,000 people, half of whom are over 85 years old.
Driven by old age, the erosion of congregations is accelerating, according to data from the Canadian Religious Conference (CRC). Between 2015 and 2020, the CRC recorded 3,578 deaths in congregations across the country, representing the loss of 30% of their membership in just five years. During this time, 195 people entered religion. Eighteen deaths, therefore, for each new arrival.
“I don’t think it’s possible to reverse this decline,” thinks Jean-Michel Bigou, deputy director of communications for the CRC. Society has changed a lot. Its values too. »
The galloping secularization raised by the Quiet Revolution caused the collapse of religious attachment to Quebec in the 1960s. according to Mr. Bigou.
“It certainly didn’t help stem the downfall of the congregations. It is as if it had come to drive the point home on this way of life and on the perception that we could have on religion and the consecrated life. »
After years of silence and impunity, the past is catching up with the orders that brooded over these abuses, almost always perpetrated against children. Brothers of the Sacred Heart, Clerics of Saint Viator, Sisters of Charity and Oblates of Mary Immaculate: legal actions and convictions add up, each time revealing a little more of the crimes that have stained Catholic virtue.
The heart of the regions
The moral decay of the Church obscures today the contribution of the congregations to the development of the regions and cities of Quebec. Long before a string of infamies made the headlines, the Sisters of Notre-Dame du Perpétuel Secours made the colonization of Saint-Damien-de-Buckland possible by welcoming the destitute, educating the destitute and caring for the sick.
“The daily life of the sisters reveals women of all trades and of all talents, wrote the Historical Society of Bellechasse in 2017 in its review Over time. They are nurses, dentists, phytotherapists, optometrists, podiatrists, accountants, secretaries, bakers, cooks, seamstresses, etc. The enumeration continues until radiology, which the NDPS sisters were still practicing in 1999.
“Founding the congregation really brought social, financial and economic momentum to the region,” says Sister Fillion. When the founder of the parish died in 1920, people even talked about the miracle of Saint-Damien. »
A century later, the decline of the congregation echoes that of the village it helped to bring into the world. The growth of Saint-Damien rested on two pillars: the Sisters of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the plastics industry. One of the two is about to disappear: the village will now have to learn to stand up without its founders.
A heritage
With the sisters gone, the village of 1,800 souls nestled in the hollow of the Appalachians will suddenly lose 6% of its population. “For 20 years, Saint-Damien has been one of the six most disadvantaged municipalities in its RCM [Bellechasse]explains the city council in a letter sent to the Homework. For example, in the space of 60 years, it has seen its population decrease by almost a quarter. »
It is in this context that the municipality inherited the heritage buildings of the congregation, magnificent, but cumbersome for this tottering village. A motherhouse, a generalate, an area coiled around Lac Vert, the size of 48 World Cup soccer fields, represent both a great opportunity and a burden for Saint-Damien.
“Why did the municipality get involved in this? No private developer has shown interest in acquiring it, the letter says. We did not want these buildings to be abandoned, since they are the heart and soul of the municipality. »
The sisters bequeathed their buildings and their estate to Saint-Damien. “We didn’t sell anything, we gave everything, underlines Madeleine Fillion, the mother superior. We were able to afford that without compromising the care our members need. »
Projects abound for the ten or so buildings that make up the imposing real estate heritage erected by the sisters over time. Temporary accommodation pavilion for foreign workers, residence for independent seniors, living space for people with intellectual disabilities: failing to stay at the bedside of the vulnerable, the sisters make sure, before their departure, that their homes will remain open to the poor. .
The end
In the chapel, tributes followed one another to the memory of Sister Georgette, interspersed with liturgical chants. All testified to his quiet and valiant life, far removed from the turmoil that agitates modern existence.
“Probably the story of Sister Georgette will never be the subject of a soap opera or a novel,” said the priest. However, this life steeped in modesty has contributed to writing the page of history that is about to turn in the countryside of Quebec.
The next chapters must now be written by others, the mother superior believes. “There is something new that needs to be born,” she says in the middle of the house that her congregation has lived in for 130 years. This movement that the communities must make is a sign, a hope for renewal. If our departure can be a second miracle for Saint-Damien, that’s kind of what we want. »