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He also suggested people have been too hasty in declaring the Catholic Church a spent force in Quebec. “Of course there are a lot of churches for the number of people who go to church, but that’s not a reason to close everything,” he said. “Yes, people don’t go, but that doesn’t mean they will never go. There are ups and downs. It isn’t always going to go down.” He pointed to the example of a former French-Canadian church in Montreal that last year was handed over to a Catholic congregation of African origin and renamed Notre-Dame d’Afrique.

Lyne Bernier, a researcher associated with the Canada research chair on urban heritage at Université du Québec à Montréal, said churches of all denominations are vital landmarks in Quebec. A 2011 research paper she wrote identified 160 churches in the province that suffered “the tragic fate” of demolition since the beginning of the 20th century. She expects more will fall, and with each one a piece of history is lost. “Churches are important because they are intimately tied to the identity of Quebecers,” she said. She is in favour of conversions that give the space back to the public in some form. “When a church is privatized, it’s as if former parishioners who contributed to its construction are dispossessed. They are losing their own heritage,” she said.

Resisting change in the hope that pews will one day fill up again is a recipe for further deterioration of the buildings, she argued. “It just pushes back the problem. [Msgr. Lépine] thinks that Quebecers are going to return to church, which is completely out of the question,” she said. “There may be sporadic returns by certain small groups, but the loss of interest is widespread and it’s irreversible. It’s not just limited to Quebec; it’s in Europe and in all western countries in general.”