Although Quebecers have a strong affiliation to a religion, it is nevertheless combined with a low practice of religious activities as well as a lower importance given to religious or spiritual convictions.
This is how Quebec stands out from the rest of the country, according to a new Statistics Canada study: only 14% of Quebecers participate in a religious group activity at least once a month, compared to proportions ranging from 21% to 32% in the other provinces.
In 1985, however, nearly half of Quebecers (48%) aged 15 and over participated in religious activities at least once a month. With less than a quarter of the population now engaging in these practices, this is a drop of 34 percentage points in about 30 years.
This decline in participation in group religious activities in Quebec highlights significant changes observed in recent decades in the province, especially among Catholics, observes the specialist in religions and lecturer in religious sciences at the UQAM, Frédéric Castel.
“This is certainly one of the long-term effects of the Quiet Revolution where believers began to question the authoritarianism of the Church and its pervasiveness in society. Catholicism, which was in the majority, was almost a national religion, ”he recalls.
Despite this gradual estrangement, both from practice and from the value accorded to religious convictions, a large number of Quebecers are not ready to completely abandon their religious identity. Some authors have used the term “cultural Catholicism” to describe this tendency, which is said to be particularly present among Quebec Catholics.
Religious paradox?
According to the results of this new study, Quebec stands out from other provinces by the highest proportion of people (40%) simultaneously declaring to have a religious affiliation and to consider their religious or spiritual convictions as not being very or not at all important. as to their way of living their life. Paradox?
The province’s identity dimension largely explains why many Quebecers remain attached, in a way, to Catholicism, without however being observant, according to Mr. Castel.
“Quebec has a history that has linked the population closely with the Catholic religion since the beginning of its existence,” he recalls. This historical identity thus remains “imbued with Quebec culture”.
It is then the “reaction of rejection” which leads to the paradoxical character. “Although the Church has been so ubiquitous in the social and cultural life of Quebec, there was a rejection with the Quiet Revolution. So people can have an identity, a historical relationship with this branch of Christianity, yes, but also a rejection of religious discourse itself and religious practices, which is why they practice little, ”he illustrates.
It is therefore quite possible that a person who never attends Church still decides to have their children baptized by symbolism, for example.
Nationally, nearly one in five Canadians (18%) reported a religious affiliation, but said they rarely or never participated in religious group activities, never engaged in a religious activity. individual religious or spiritual activity and that he considered his religious or spiritual convictions to have little or no importance in the way of living his life.
In addition, the share of Canadians who attended a religious group activity at least once a month almost halved from 43% to 23% between 1985 and 2019.
New generations
There are also significant contrasts between different age cohorts with respect to religious affiliation and the importance given to religious or spiritual beliefs. However, in all cases, the situation in Quebec is different from that in other regions of the country.
From 2017 to 2019, younger cohorts were more likely not to report religious affiliation (30% of those born between 1980 and 1999, compared to 13% for those born between 1960 and 1979, and 7% between 1940 and 1959).
From one birth cohort to another, a growing and ever larger proportion than elsewhere in the country of people declaring a religious affiliation also indicates that their religious convictions were not very important or not at all important in their life. This was the case for 42% of Quebec residents born between 1940 and 1959, 50% of those born between 1960 and 1979 and 62% of those born between 1980 and 1999.
This decline among the new generations is explained in the first place by the lack of exposure to religiosity, notes the lecturer Frédéric Castel. “If we had been born before 1985, we would have known the religious school in Quebec, which means that we were bathed in an atmosphere imbued with religiosity. But as fewer and fewer schools across Canada are religious, young people are less exposed to religious universes, it is a bit normal for that to be diluted ”.
The erosion of certain beliefs in the face of the advance of scientific thought, the contestation of the conservative values conveyed by religious institutions in the face of modernity – such as the traditional role of women in society – as well as the rejection of doctrinal authoritarianism and human religious institutions are all factors that explain this collapse, summarizes Mr. Castel.
“The younger we are, the more we resist any idea of imposed dogma or practice in this direction. It is this double movement that is at play: religion, whatever it is, is less significant in general culture, and it is among these young people that we have an increasingly assertive reaction against excess of authority. », He concludes.