Quebec Church shows signs of rebound

It was immediately apparent from the zeal in his voice that Cardinal Gerald Cyprien Lacroix is energized by what he is seeing materialize in Quebec over the past two years.

The Archbishop of Quebec and Primate of Canada said Catholics dedicating themselves to the faith, and young people embracing Christianity for the first time, are planting seeds for a renewal once thought entirely out of reach. 

“We are seeing an interest and thirst for a true, serious commitment in faith,” said Lacroix. “They want a deeper faith and to discover the beauty of all this.

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“It’s a challenge for us because we have an older community,” he acknowledged. “Our practicing Catholics are, more or less, quite advanced in age. They thought they would be the last generation and there would be no renewal. But the Lord has touched the hearts of young people, and the Holy Spirit remains one step ahead of us. The Holy Spirit is sending us young people, couples and families."

It's quite the change for a province that was once the heart of Catholicism in Canada, only to see a rapid decline in the last half of the 20th century as the Quiet Revolution spread throughout Quebec. A Church that was once the cornerstone of the province saw repaid decine in an ever-more secular Quebec.

There are headwinds for the Quebec archdiocese, and the province as a whole, to contend with as the Church pursues a potential renaissance, however. 

For one, the Quebec government’s 2025 decision to suspend programs that bequeathed financial aid to church renovations and transformations imperils many parish communities. 

Cameron Piper of Conseil du patrimoine religieux du Québec — the heritage group that administered the funds — told the Canadian Press in February that his group forecasts the church closure trend to accelerate as repair costs soar and attendance keeps declining. His group found that “of 2,751 places of worship — of all denominations — in the province inventoried in 2003, about 965 of them, or 35 per cent, were listed as being 'in mutation,' meaning they had been closed, demolished, sold or had found new uses.”

There are also concerns about priest shortages. In August, the Register reported that the Pembroke diocese’s Pontiac Deanery covering the southern part of the Pontiac region in western Quebec would suspend Sunday Mass at 10 parishes. Several retired and active priests from other parishes were able to fill in the gaps during the summer, but now there are just two priests to serve 14 member parishes. 

Uncertainty also reigns over the potential impacts Bill 9, a law that passed in April that bolsters state secularism, will have on religious freedom and expression. One of the provisions of the law is the banning of “collective religious practice” in public spaces without express permission. 

While some parishes are contending with problems that will ultimately prove too difficult to surmount, a number of parishes in Lacroix’s archdiocese are authoring comeback stories.

“We have some parishes who thought it was going to be over. ‘We’ll do the best we can and then one day you’ll put the key in the door and it will be done.' But we’re getting so many young people, including some from immigration, which has been a blessing for us,” said Lacroix. 

The 69-year-old commended the congregants from Africa, South America, the Philippines and other communities filling the pews for exhibiting “a vibrant faith that is inspiring other young couples and people.”

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Lacroix intends to participate in this revival up close. He connected with the Register amid a 10-day visit to parishes within the Beauce region where he celebrated Mass and engaged in pastoral meetings with catechists, clerics, people involved in liturgy and community organizations.

“It’s really wonderful to be at ground zero with the people to listen to them, encourage them, confirm them and give them hope,” said Lacroix. “And they give me hope, too, by what they're experiencing.”

The conversations will be focused on the opportunities ahead of them, but also the challenges they have to be mindful of as they chart a course for the future with the Holy Spirit’s aid.

Some of the parish and Christian family life ideas Lacroix is bringing to the table are inspired by his experience at the recent Vatican conference (Oct. 7-14) to appraise the 10-year legacy of the apostolic exhortation Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love) that emerged from the Synod on the Family. 

The Cardinal, a special guest of Pope Leo XIV, described the week as a “blessing and eye-opener” as he was enriched by hearing the perspectives of Catholics around the world, and he and others in attendance, discovered a fresh urgency to strengthen the role of families in the life of the Church. 

Lacroix outlined three objectives he would like to see implemented in the Archdiocese of Quebec. He would like to bolster the “quality of presence” for couples and families. Along with “being more present and listening more to their needs,” he would like to allow couples to dialogue and be accompanied by other couples.

Being mindful that people preparing for consecrated religious life can spend six to eight years in formation on average, Lacroix would like couples discerning their call to marriage to be accompanied earlier and longer instead of a brief course or weekend retreat. 

“We need to do much better than that because marriage is something very serious,” said Lacroix. “It's for life. And there are a lot of adjustments that need to be made. We need to better prepare them, but we also need to accompany them after.”

And third, recognizing that there are very few schools nowadays that do transmit the faith in Quebec, Lacroix said there needs to be more support developed for parents to pass along Catholic teaching to their children with the help of catechists.

One of the greatest successes of the year in the Quebec archdiocese is the 90 catechumens who participated in the rite of election in Quebec City alone. Lacroix said that there are “four times as many catechumens as there were four years ago.”

The interest in Catholicism throughout Quebec is evidently soaring. The test now is to create long-term relationships with parishes and Christian family life. 

Lacroix is signalling confidence.

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“There's a lot of hope, let me tell you,” said Lacroix. “It is going to be a lot of work, but that is what the Lord wants, and that's what we want too. We've been praying for this for a long time, for a revival. 

“I think it's coming.”

(Amundson is an associate editor and writer for The Catholic Register.)

A version of this article appeared in the November 01, 2026 issue of The Catholic Register with the headline "Quebec Church shows signs of rebound".