A new Quebec quarterly, Egards (Considerations).

Montreal -- We welcome an impressive new French quarterly, Egards, published and edited by Luc Gagnon of Campagne Quebec Vie and Jean Renaud; it styles itself a review of the conservative resistance. It draws upon the ideas of a distinguished American conservative thinker (and Catholic convert), the late Russell Kirk; the six principles he set down in his The Politics of Prudence (including belief in a transcendent order and respect for private property) are repeated here. But the common denominator of conservatism, the introductory statement says, is the refusal of statism: "The state has become the great, the unique, spiritual authority. It dominates our spirit and our bodies." Before the abortionists, the nihilists, the statist destroyers of civil society, the statement continues, we see silence, languor, passivity. That is true throughout the West, but most especially in Quebec.

In fact, in his 1985 book on the maintenance of the faith, Cardinal Ratzinger takes the example of Quebec to illustrate the rapidity and depth of the collapse of religious communities. Luc Gagnon, in a discussion of the cultural decline of Quebec Catholicism, notes that in the period between 1961 and 1981 the number of women religious declined from 46, 933 to 26,294. The death of the convents constituted in short a prelude to the death of Quebec Catholicism. The Church abandoned its educational and cultural mission, and so it was not surprising that at the Petit Seminaire in Quebec City, founded by Laval in 1663, the chapel was transformed into a concert hall. With several articles of such high quality, including especially one by Richard Bastien on homosexual marriage as a contradiction, Egards is off to a good start. May it be a shining light in the Quebec darkness.

Egards, 3333 Chemin de la Cote-Sainte Catherine, Montreal, Que, H3T 1C8. Tel: [phone]; E-mail: [e-mail] Subscription: $35.00 a year.