by Archbishop Charles Chaput
PHILADELPHIA PA–Most Americans have immigrant roots. I\’m no exception. While my mother\’s family was Native American (Prairie Band Potowatomi), my father\’s heritage was French Canadian. Growing up in the 1950s, I was very aware that French-speaking Canada – Quebec – was among the most deeply Catholic regions in the world. For more than 200 years, the Church in Quebec not only preached the Gospel, educated the young and ministered to the poor and infirm, but also sustained French language and culture in the face of Canada\’s English-speaking Protestant majority.
Quebec\’s \”Quiet Revolution\” destroyed all that in just a few decades. Starting in the mid-20th century and speeding up quickly after Vatican II, Quebeckers left the Church in droves. Today barely 5 percent of Quebeckers attend Mass regularly. The Church is often seen as an object of scorn. How did it happen? There\’s no single reason. Church leaders brought some of the trouble on themselves through overconfidence, inertia and an inability to see the changing terrain of their people. Consumerism colonized the lay faithful. And the culture became dominated by new and highly secularized leaders in politics, education and mass media.
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