Oh Brother
March 3, 2010
"You know your grandmother has always had problems with her eyes, right?" was one of the issues that my father raised when we were discussing the canonization of Brother Andre that is due to take place in October. Although Brother Andre is a superstar here in Quebec, his canonization will further raise his level of prestige-even if he is dead. Andre Bessette had such a reputation as a miracle worker in Montreal, that it prompted my grandmother's father, a Norwegian atheist, to seek his help for his daughter (my grandmother is not blind, but has eye troubles, the same type of troubles many people endure daily). I realize that what ultimately leads to becoming an official Saint are two confirmed miracles, naturally the Church will not release the miracles that Mr. Bessette committed, because they realize that they are open to scientific interpretation, something the Church would love to avoid when admitting a deceased man to sainthood.
It's no secret to any Quebecer or any Canadian that the Roman Catholic church has played a large and important role in the history and development of Quebec. The church's development saw Quebec become an incredibly conservative Province. The Duplessis government believed that the church should be heavily involved in all aspects of life, this led to tension with elites in French-Canadian society. This tension ultimately led to the "Quiet Revolution" under the Lassage government which largely secularized Quebec society, culture, and education. However, the canonization of Andre Bessette frightens me. The atmosphere among Montrealers is favorable to his sainthood, something that mystifies me, seeing as how we are supposed to be a secular culture. In Quebec, we have fought hard to separate ourselves from the church, from it's controlling grip on the ordinary people of Quebec and especially women. The church's grip on women was particularly frightening, stories of women being brought into Priests offices because they were not having enough kids are very common. Brother Andre's sainthood only shows that the church's influence in Quebec has all but disapeared. The fact that most Montrealers are happy with Bessette's sainthood worries me, because the church's influence was so strong and we separated ourselves from it, shouldn't we try and separate ourselves from the pseudosciences that come with it? To believe that this was a miracle worker is ridiculous. No, this isn't a topic to be debated. "Whatever helps you sleep at night" is not a decent counter-argument. Divine miracles do not happen and we especially should not be proud of Bessette's sainthood if we aren't allowed to know what two miracles the man conjured up. To believe in sainthood and that it is genuinely good for Quebec is denying our past, it is denying the fact that the Church controlled every single aspect of our lives until we took enough and demanded change because we knew that we could do better and needed more freedom.
Bessette's reputation was so large that it even led my grandmother's atheist father to seek his help. Surely this was because every other means had already been exhausted and the only thing that could cure her at a young age was a divine miracle. So I asked my father, "you say my grandmother has always had eye problems...", he chuckled. It looks like Mr. Bessette did not fix my grandmother's eye troubles, but couldn't turn the fool into a believer.
Comments:
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