Disestablishment of the Church and Voluntary Culture: The Case of Francophone Roman Catholics in Canada (Essay‪)‬

This article reflects on the relationship between religions and civil society in Canada, paying special attention to francophone Roman Catholics. Its primary purpose is to reflect on the process of disestablishment of the Catholic Church. The article draws upon several reports from Statistics Canada and from qualitative studies to describe some aspects of the Canadian religious landscape. After an overview, it focuses on francophone Roman Catholics in Canada and specifically in Quebec. The exploration encourages a more detailed analysis of Canadian religious and social structures in relation to the secularization discussion, both in sociology and theology. Theoretically, the contribution of this article is to consider sociological as well as Christian theological reflections that address the institutional decline of religion, and how Western countries have coped with diverse forms of disestablishment. In this consideration, the work of two authors is particularly helpful: that of the sociologist Jose Casanova and that of the theologian David Fergusson. (1) Fergusson is one representative of the field called "public theology." He reflects on the relation between church, state, and civil society, and inevitably addresses issues of disestablishment. Even if he does not admit it explicitly, Fergusson is obviously influenced by Casanova; he elaborates a combined theological and sociological approach, taking into account differentiation among diverse social spheres and paying particular attention to civil society. His project, contextualized in England and Scotland, is quite similar to my project in Quebec, even if the state-religion relationship is quite different. At the end of his book, he argues in favor of disestablishment in the two countries. Casanova also contributes to an understanding of the conditions of a "relevant" disestablishment.