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October 29, 2021

Quebec bishops deplore gutting of religious culture courses

Catholic bishops protest the provincial government's plan to replace religious culture courses with a program called "Quebec Culture and Citizenship"
Quebec bishops deplore gutting of religious culture courses

A school in Montreal, Quebec, August 31, 2021. The teaching of religious culture has come under fire since its introduction in 2008. (Photo by HUGHES GRAHAM/CP/ABACA)

Catholic bishops in Quebec have expressed outrage over government plans to eliminate religious culture courses in schools throughout the mostly French-speaking province in Canada.

"Religion remains a societal issue, in Quebec as elsewhere, and this fact will not disappear overnight by removing religious culture from the school curriculum," the bishops said in a statement on Monday.

Developing students' critical thinking skills

Quebec's ministry for education had announced the change the previous day.

Education Minister Jean-François Roberge unveiled the broad outlines of the "Quebec culture and citizenship" program, which is meant to replace the teaching of religious culture (ECR).

The new program is designed around three axes -- citizenship, culture and the development of critical thinking.

The religious culture courses were introduced in 2008. But they were criticized from the outset and some political parties have called for their removal.

"The former program was based on a dogma...according to which, it is membership in a religious community that essentially defines our identity. We can no longer tolerate this kind of bias in our schools in Quebec," Roberge said.

But the province's Catholic bishops warn that the new program will only lead to a greater and more dangerous "ignorance of the concept of religion".

They say this will end up "feeding prejudices and increasing social polarization, rather than helping students move towards the recognition of others and pursuit of the common good".

Bishops call for "better refinement of educational approaches"

As part of a public consultation on the revision of this teaching, the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops submitted a brief last year on the "important complementarity of ethics and religious culture in the Quebec of today and tomorrow".

They insisted on the need for public schools to address religion "in a nuanced and objective way, in its undeniable plurality".

But the Minister of Education dismissed their recommendations and bishops did not hide their annoyance.

"It would be better to refine our educational approaches and nuance the content offered to students, rather than trying to sweep it under the rug," they said.

Quebec's bishops now hope that the "many concerns expressed by several civil society stakeholders" will be "taken into account in developing the details of the new curriculum".

The announcement of the new culture and citizenship program also provoked strong reactions from teachers' unions in the province, which fear it will lead to an additional workload and a lack of training for the new curriculum.

Schools will be able to gradually phase in the new program beginning in September 2022. They must all be in compliance by 2023.

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