Perspective gramscienne sur les rapports entre l’Église catholique canadienne et l’État colonial au tournant du XIXe siècle

This thesis analyses the situation of the catholic church of Canada at the turn of the 19th century using a Gramscian theoretical framework. Through the historical paths of three bishops, we demonstrate that the episcopacy maintained its position as an essential link between the Canadian population and the colonial state. We observe a threefold movement from within the catholic institution. The bishops intended to strengthen the structure of the episcopacy through social control and by increasing the numerical basis of the clergy. Republican ideas being promoted through the Atlantic revolutions, the colonial government and the episcopacy tightened their relationship in order to defend a monarchist conception of the world; the state and the church came to form what Antonio Gramsci calls an “ideological bloc”. The relationship between the two institutions was, however, not without conflict. A tug of war began over the judicial situation of the Catholic church. Some members of the British elite hoped to reinforce state control over the episcopacy which they considered as too independent. The issue at stake in the debates that arose at the start of the 19th century was to ascertain who would control the ideological apparatus in a colony where the majority of the population was Catholic

Accepted: 2024-01-11T19:30:15Z