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Canadian spirituality is based on the lives of Aboriginals and the European missionaries who joined them in seventeenth century New France. The French colonists practiced Catholic Christianity and evangelized the Aboriginal people so that almost ten per cent accepted the Christian beliefs. Canadians adjusted a sophisticated Christian spirituality from Europe to Canadian life on the frontier. Spirituality gave Canadians a personal identity by which they were able to break out of human isolation and reach out to others. The arrival of Irish, Scottish, Italian and Portuguese immigrants to Canada further diversified ethnic components in Canada so that by 1970 Canada was a multinational country with a multinational spirituality. This missionary spirituality not only inspired Canadians at home to secure peace, order, and good government but also to carry to Asia and Africa the Canadian values of schools and hospitals. The spirituality of Vatican II affirmed Canadian spirituality in the direction it was moving toward the multinational values of the postmodern world.
About the author
Dr. Terence J. Fay is a Jesuit priest who has written A History of Canadian Catholics: Gallicanism, Romanism, and Canadianism (McGill-Queen¿s UP, 2002) and The New Faces of Canadian Catholics: The Asians (Novalis, 2009). He is past president of the Canadian Catholic Historical Association and editor of its Bulletin.
