Church in the World

Vatican attacks Quebec’s compulsory RE course

THE HEAD of the Vatican's education office has described the religious education curriculum introduced by the government of Quebec as bordering on "anti-Catholic".

Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski, the Prefect of the Congregation for Catholic Education, stepped into the row over religious education, which has divided the Canadian province, when he criticised the Ethics and Religious Culture programme. It was implemented last September and has replaced all other RE curricula in the province's state schools and Protestant and Catholic schools.

Eighty-two per cent of Quebec's 7.5 million population are at least nominally Catholic, and boycotts of the course are occurring throughout the province. Cardinal Grocholewski said: "Talking in the same way about all religions is almost like an anti-Catholic education, because this creates a certain relativism." He said this approach could ultimately be anti-religious, since young people are left with the impression that each faith is a fictional narrative. Speaking to the Zenit news agency in Rome, he also said that teaching all religions equally "violates the right of parents to educate their own children according to their own religion".

Some Quebec schools have suspended pupils who take part in the boycotts. Loyola High School, a private Jesuit school in Montreal, is suing the province after its request that it be exempted from teaching the programme because it was "contrary to its faith mission" was denied.

Under the new curriculum pupils from the age of six to 18 learn the religious stories, practices and beliefs of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, as well as atheism and native aboriginal spiritualities. Critics claim the programme insists that all belief systems are equally valid. The province says the new course better serves "the current social challenges and the needs of Quebec youth today".

The Coalition for Freedom in Education, a Christian ecumenical group, asked the province to allow exemptions for pupils and parents who believe the course is contrary to their religious beliefs. More than 1,400 families have asked the province to exempt their children from the course but the province refuses to grant any exemptions. In 2005, in what many now see as a precursor to the introduction of the new course, the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms was amended, without debate and unanimously, removing the requirement that schools respect parental beliefs and convictions within school programmes. Parents denied exemptions have launched a lawsuit which is to be heard in May. A 2008 poll, conducted by the    polling company Leger found that 72 per cent of Quebecois want parents to choose the religious education of their children. The Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec has refrained from criticising the new course, but Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Archbishop of Quebec, has been a persistent critic, saying the course "is conducted at the expense of the religious freedom of the citizen, especially [that] of the Catholic majority".

A similar battle is being fought in another historic Catholic heartland, Spain, where compulsory "civics" classes have been introduced that explore issues such as gay rights and stem-cell research. Thousands of pupils have boycotted lessons, but the Supreme Court ruled last month that pupils could not opt out.

The Church has played a critical role in education in Quebec since the province's founding more than 400 years ago. Pope Leo XIII described Quebec's many Catholic schools as a gift from the Church to the State.