Quebec Has the European Disease

Every couple of years I like to take a look at happenings in Quebec, that embattled 'island' of  French language and culture in otherwise Anglophone Canada. Today's quick glimpse, written for the Gatestone Institute, reports Quebec's once-universal Catholicism, like that of southern Europe, is basically dead.

Quebec's Catholic buildings are empty; the clergy is aging.

The Catholic Diocese of Montreal sold 50 churches and other religious buildings in the last 15 years.

In 1966, there were 8,800 priests; today there are 2,600, most of whom are elderly; many live in nursing homes. In 1945, weekly mass was attended by 90% of the Catholic population; today it is 4%.

The birth rate has fallen from an average of four children per couple to just 1.6 -- well below what demographers call the "replacement rate"

Meanwhile Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has welcomed Muslim refugees to Canada. Apparently he cannot understand the object lessons of Belgium, France and Germany. If he were smart he''d recruit ethnic Europeans fleeing the problems there.