Catholic Canada Vs. Catholic U.s.

[fons_vitae]

Is the Church's situation in Canada better or worse than in the U.S.? I know the State is harsher on them in some ways, but I also tend to think of Canada as a place with Catholic roots (among the French, Irish, and Ukrainians, at least).

[CatherineM]

Abortion is legal here as is gay marriage. There are moves towards trying to force priests to preform them. Catholic education is free which my Dad would have loved. Canadian politics is less polarized.

[PhuturePriest]

Patrick Coffin, a Catholic Apologist and native to Canada, said the Catholic situation in Canada is really, really bad, but there have been some hopeful things happening.

[Nihil Obstat]

Is the Church's situation in Canada better or worse than in the U.S.? I know the State is harsher on them in some ways, but I also tend to think of Canada as a place with Catholic roots (among the French, Irish, and Ukrainians, at least).

I have been to Mass in four dioceses in Western Canada, and several in the US, and in my experience the situation is worse here. Catholic identity is weaker, homilies tend to be more watered down, the churches themselves are rather poor, and the communities themselves are fairly lame. Things may be different in a place like Montreal, but that is my experience in the west.

On the other hand, my traditional Latin Mass community in Calgary is the most vital that I have seen, having attending traditional Masses in several dioceses, including Rome. We have a large community, full of young families and children. The community is very friendly, very welcoming, and not kind of creepy and weird and 'Jansenistic' like you sometimes find in other places. Also our Fraternity priests have all been amazing. That may be because we have had a traditional Mass community since (if I remember correctly) 1989, so we are much more established than many of the newer communities.

At the same time, there is a Ukrainian Catholic church, a Maronite church, and an Anglican Ordinariate church in the city, none of which I have had a chance to attend yet. I keep meaning to, but you know how things go. Perhaps things are different for them, not being part of the Diocese of Calgary.

 

Some of this is likely due to the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops. They have not served the Church in Canada well in the past, and I think some of their less than stellar decisions have had subtle long term impacts on the Church here. Look into the Winnipeg Statement if you have not already done so, and you will see what I mean.

Like you said, the role of the Canadian government has also not helped. The Human Rights Commissions have perhaps scared a lot of priests. Our bishop was investigated for hate speech after re-iterating the Church's position on homosexuality. I am sure that has had something of a chilling effect, but relatively speaking that kind of thing is more recent. The issues are deeper than that.

[Didacus]

Canadian Catholics are marginalized - especially in Quebec.

[fons_vitae]

Abortion is legal here as is gay marriage. There are moves towards trying to force priests to preform them. Catholic education is free which my Dad would have loved. Canadian politics is less polarized.

 

I think the lack of polarization might have been in my mind when considering this (I'm more of a Type B personality). But yes, it does sound like there may be more outright antipathy up there than the do-it-yourself religion that sometimes pervades U.S.