Religion in the Public Realm in Quebec: Forty Years of Debate over the Presence of Religion in the Public School System (1960‐2000)

Abstract

Over the past half‐century, Quebec has undergone profound social, political, economical and cultural change. What had been a traditional and religious milieu has rapidly become a modern and secular society. Until recently a noticeable exception to this trend was the continuing existence of a denominational (Catholic or Protestant) public school system. For the last forty years this situation has fuelled an ongoing debate opposing partisans of Quebec's religious identity and those who insist on the pluralistic character of modern Quebec. This research closely examines the debate, in order to show how arguments on both sides have changed over the decades and how these changes reflect a development in the way Quebeckers as a whole perceive the role of religion in their society. It is thus an interpretative and inductive study of written material pertaining to different stages of the debate. When we examine the debate diachronically, an evolution can be perceived that suggests a decisive withdrawal of religion from the public realm. This tends to confirm Marcel Gauchet's views expressed in La religion dans la democratie: we seem to witness the development of an individualistic type of democracy in which priority is given to the display of pluralism and in which religion is tolerated as long as it limits itself to be a source of meaning and values, alongside other sources.