Canada : No more New Year’s Mass for the City of Quebec

The City of Quebec abandoned this year the tradition New Year’s Mass.  It thus put an end to one of the oldest traditions of the public administration of the “Old Capital”.  According to the Christian radio station Radio Ville-Marie in Quebec, the City did not elaborate on the reasons for discontinuing the custom in 2011 and merely recalled that it is a “secular public administration”.  Last year scarcely sixty people had attended that Mass at Notre-Dame Cathedral.  Cardinal Marc Ouellet, then an Archbishop, took advantage of the occasion to recall the importance of that tradition:  “In the preamble of the Canadian Constitution it is written that our country is founded on the recognition of the supremacy of God and of the primacy of law.  I am glad that in Quebec, the cradle of our nation, a gesture like today’s celebration expresses at the same time respect for the values of our people and respect for our Constitution,” he declared to the gathering.

Today a discreet crucifix in the municipal Council Hall and a statue of the Blessed Virgin dating back to the 1950’s on the façade of the building are the only reminders left of the religious heritage of the City of Quebec.  (Sources : apic/Radio Ville-Marie - DICI no. 228 dated January 22, 2011)

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