Here & Beyond

A controversy, more sociological than theological, has disturbed the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec. The dispute springs from a historical process--the fact that the province is steadily becoming less rural and pastoral, more urban and industrialized.

How shall the church adapt its leadership to the changing society? One faction, led by Laval University's dean of social sciences, the Very Rev. Georges-Henri ("Jolly Monk") Levesque, argues for a militant championship of the working class; this faction has promoted cooperatives and Catholic trade unions. An opposing group, supported by Quebec's Premier Maurice Duplessis, believes that the rural parish society must be strengthened and that the church must stay aloof from class antagonisms, though it should fight for social justice.

These clashing points of view were summed up by an impartial churchman: "It is a question of emphasis. One faction says that we must teach people how to say their prayers, but we must also see that they have good working conditions and have a just deal. The other faction says that if you emphasize the working conditions and the just deal too much, you're tackling a problem which will never be entirely solved, and people may forget how to say their prayers. If you fight Communism, which talks about a heaven on earth, just by saying you can provide better toilets than the Communists, you're conceding the Communists' premise; and you're forgetting the essential point of Catholicism, which is, that although we may try to improve this life, we must also remember that there is a life beyond."

Into the Open. Last week Maclean's magazine, in an article by Ottawa Editor Blair Fraser, brought the argument into the open. Author Fraser gave unstinted support to the Levesque faction and belabored the opposing group. "The Duplessis government," he charged, "has used every kind of pressure on Laval University to fire [Levesque]; ultra-conservatives in the Quebec clergy have twice carried their war against him to the Vatican itself . . ." To force the issue at Laval, continued Fraser, Duplessis had withheld half of a provincial $4,000,000 grant.

"Why this concentrated assault? And why should it come just now?" asked Fraser. His answer: it was partly retaliation for last year's prolonged strike at Asbestos, Que., in which certain clerics defied the Duplessis government and supported labor. "Leader in this prolabor, anti-Duplessis swing was Msgr. Joseph Charbonneau, Archbishop of Montreal, [who] last winter was summarily dismissed. Ostensibly he retired 'for reasons of health.'. . . Against Levesque [and his followers] are all the men who want Quebec to stay exactly as it is, or . . . as it was 50 years ago; for him, the men who believe change is imminent and overdue."

Counterattack. Church leaders were not pleased over the belligerent and partisan Maclean's article. In Ottawa, Apostolic Delegate Msgr. Ildebrando Antoniutti said Fraser was "badly informed," his article "evidently tendentious." Archbishop Paul-Emile Leger, who had been trying to pour oil over the controversial waters after the resignation of Msgr. Charbonneau, was rumored to be "unhappy."

This week the Ensign, Canada's national Catholic weekly newspaper, took a strong view of the Fraser article:

"This type of writing can most charitably be explained by reference to the hot weather. It appears as a great discovery for some non-Catholics when they hear of the existence of varying opinions amongst Catholics on many problems outside of faith and morals. Blinded by ignorance, sometimes innocent, they believe that all Catholics neither think nor discuss, but that they merely obey a dictatorial and usually arbitrary 'party line.' When they hear of discussions they see in it almost a rebellion, and then give their imagination free reign of misinterpretation . . ."

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