A translation by Judith Turcotte.
During my elementary school days, religion played a large part in my life. We are in the fifties; mass on Sunday and confession once a month are an obligation. My family went to high mass on Sunday because my father was in the choir. I endured mass on Sunday and I detested going to confession. The name of the best students appeared in the parish bulletin on Sunday morning. My name often appeared to my parents’ delight.
One of my teachers was a fanatic. I will always remember the day, a Friday, when I came home. Sitting at the table for supper, I took my fork and passed my knife between its prongs. My mother saw me doing this and wanted to know what I was doing. I explained that I was following my teacher’s instructions to make sure there was no meat lodged between the prongs. I remind you that at the time it was forbidden to eat meat on Fridays. I will not describe my mother’s reaction but according to the customs of the time, she should have gone to confession the next day.
In Saint-Lambert, the Protestants were in the majority and the Catholic authorities were in defence mode. The Catholic Church took up a lot of places in our lives “for our own good” so they said. We had to avoid our Protestant neighbours. I remember one event in particular when the school principal had summoned my father to his office. Two days earlier, I had missed school in the morning. I had presented a note from my father explaining that I had to attend a funeral. When my father arrived at the office, the principal explained that he had checked and that there had been no funeral at the Catholic Church that week. My father then explained that we had attended a neighbour’s funeral at the St. Lambert United Church, a Protestant church. The principal had chastised my father; how had he dared let me enter a Protestant church. Moreover English? I do not remember my father’s response but the meeting was brief, very brief.
I also remember the board with the names of the students of the class who had contributed to the purchase of “Chinese children.” The funds were directed to missionaries who worked in converting humanity to the Catholic Church. Today, it is Islam who presents itself in a message to humanity. When it is not one, it is the other. The more things change, the more they remain the same.
I have a friend who he and his 3 catholic brothers went to catholic elementary then the father sent them to CCHS a english Protestant school. The priests came to his house and the last I heard was he took them by the collars and walked them down his front steps. He never returned to that church but found one in Jacques Cartier.