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A son and his father "I regret," Alexandre Trudeau began, "that I father was moved by an episode in Hugo's Les must give up my claim to be 'The Hidden Miserables. Jean Valjean, arrested for burglarizing Trudeau."' a church, is freed when the Bishop tells the The laughter that erupted from those gendarmes that he had given the stolen assembled in the St. Jerome's Community Centre candlesticks to Valjean as a gift. A cleric of less on November 6 recognized that this most private generous disposition featured in another favourite son of Canada's most private prime minister was story drawn from Dostoevsky's The Brothers about to do something extraordinary. He was Karamazov. The parable of Christ's return to about to talk about Pierre Trudeau's faith and Earth and imprisonment by the Grand spirituality from the only vantage point not Inquisitor demonstrated to Alexandre the presented in the book being launched that perils of an institutionalized belief severed evening: that of a son reflecting upon the from its humane origins. guidance and example of his father. "It stays with me," he said. A year before, in May 2003, friends, colleagues, Alexandre has chosen to enact his personal and scholars gathered at St. Jerome's and the sense of social justice as a filmmaker and journalist University ofWaterloo to examine Pierre Elliott for Maclean)s. His documentary Embedded in Iraq Trudeau's faith and its influence on his public life. chronicles the forty days he spent living with a From those discussions came The Hidden Trudeau: middle-class Baghdad family before, during and The Faith Behind the Politics (Novalis) edited by after the American invasion. His latest film, The John English, Richard Gwyn, and P. Whitney Fence, documents the time he spent living on both Lackenbauer. The book documents the insights of sides of the security barrier separating Israel from many participants who knew or had studied Palestine-first with an Israeli family, then with a Trudeau, including John Turner, Allan Palestinian man. It is his gift to create a human MacEachen, context for the momentous issues of our time. Stephen In considering the foundation for his own Clarkson, beliefs, Alexandre quoted Pascal's famous Wager Michael W. on God's Existence: "The eternal silence of these Higgins, and infinite spaces frightens me." And, like his father, Bruce Powe. he believes that religious belief is something shared Speaker after with others "as our most sacred, private thing." speaker He shared such a moment in his closing arrived at remarks, recounting a meeting with an elderly a conclusion Muslim who acknowledged that "he loved his that religion, but he had never met a true Muslim." Alexandre And Alexandre concurred: "I said the same: 'I am summed up in a Christian, but I have never met a true Christian."' three words The speech was the highlight of an event more than a which raised money to support the Pierre year later: for Trudeau Scholarship. Created by Dr. Ron Pierre Trudeau, Schlegel, this scholarship is available through religious faith St. Jerome's to upper-year students throughout was "a private the University of Waterloo studying in areas closely Photo: Mike Christie thing." associated with Pierre Trudeau: history, philosophy, In looking to the prominent, public role that religious studies, and political science. i. religion has come to play in American political life, Alexandre is proud that his father's religious All royalties from the conviction was private. But he is also "proud that sale of The Hidden he shared it with me and my brothers." Trudeau will be Without breaching that privacy, he offered donated to the glimpses into how his father encouraged a sense Trudeau Scholarship of faith and social justice within his sons, taking by Novalis. St. Jerome's University them to Mass and developing their understanding Volume 22 · Number 2 of the proper role and exercise of religious belief Fall/ Winter 2004 by reading to them from literary classics. In particular, Alexandre remembered how his Photo: Mike Christie Why unveil the hidden Trudeau? b~ Michael W Higgins t should prove unsettling to us all tl1at, in Contemporary commentators Martin Levin Canada, faith is the only thing left in the and Nino Ricci have written about religion and its I "closet." When it does emerge as a matter for public invisibility. Said Levin, "It seems we are open discussion-blinking, tentative, easily ready to talk openly about the most intimate cowed-faitl1 is seen more as an embarrassment, personal tl1ings, body odour, or a taste for an uncomfortable outing for the proverbial sadomasochism, but spiritual matters are off-limits relative in tl1e attic, rather tlian as a welcome in polite company, almost an embarrassment." visitor to the household of learning. And Ricci replied, "Religion almost never gets How did we arrive at this dangerous talked about; there's little outlet for what once marginalization of one of tl1e constitutive features was for most people, and still is for many, a of a genuine civilization? Why is it critical that the formative part of who we are. It's something we secular academy engage rather than isolate may have rejected or only nominally believe in, Michael W Higgins is theological discourse and maximize rather than but it continues to inform our culture." President of St. Jerome 's minimize opportunities for the study of "faith issues"? As a nation, we have concluded that religious University. Think of how religion is regularly short­ conviction and denominational affiliation are Photo: Ro n Hewson changed in the public forum. An editorial in The verboten in the political marketplace. They are best Globe and Mail-in an otherwise religion-friendly reserved to the private sphere. Memories of past reflection on Reginald Bibby's R estless Gods: The religio-political and socio-religious conflicts warn R enaissance ofReligion in Canada-notes: "Faith us tl1at the subtle intrusion into the political world is not always a good thing. One need only look at of creedal and spiritual convictions is to be fiercely so many parts of the world where religious resisted. In short, religion means disagreement, extremism has led to hatred and violence in the division, and disharmony. But does it? name of God. And separation of church and state Are we not dealing with a simple-minded must be rigorously enforced." media construct, a perversion of meaning and At first reading, I think most readers would intention? Why should the religious convictions of regard these remarks as sensible. But, on closer public leaders be kept in a holding tank in the examination, tl1ey betray the mounting anxiety belief tl1at knowledge of an individual's core over the commingling of religion and politics that values is to be kept hidden in the public interest? has taken on accelerated momentum in recent Ignorance about religion can lead to disastrous months. Religion mixed with politics is always results-as recent social and political deemed to be a dangerous cocktail. developments only too pertinently demonstrate. In an earlier time, the public discussion of faith The questionable strategy of identifying and political views, theological and social issues, institutional religion as pathology-driven and was not only possible and acceptable, but spirituality as blessedly holistic contributes to the entertaining and instructive. general miasma that pervades both media and A radio play/debate I wrote for the CBC and popular discussions around faith in the public which aired first in 1986 was based on the forum . The university is the ideal setting for tl1e writings of Gilbert Keith Chesterton and George disinterested investigation of faith. Bernard Shaw. These two men of an earlier time It is tl1e job of university education to produce delighted in public debate and struggled with fair critics of both received and untried ideas. matters of consequence in the full glare of public Ideas and critiques about religion-its myriad scrutiny. Chesterton concluded his debate with institutional roles, its chequered and complex Shaw with these words: "You ask people to history, and its capacity to either expand or worship the Life-Force; as if anybody could diminish human freedom-have a critical function worship a hyphen." at the heart of the academy. Now don't get me wrong. I am not one for And that is why we co-hosted with tl1e basking in the comforting rays of nostalgia or University of Waterloo last year's first-ever restoring the ancien regime. But I am keen on conference on Pierre Elliott Trudeau's faith and recapturing something of that openness and spirituality, and tl1at is why the publication this freedom that you find in honest public debate, November of tl1e conference's proceedings under that generosity of exchange and good will, that the title The Hidden Pierre Trudeau: The Faith healthy willingness to engage issues that truly Behind the Politics is such a welcome event . .t matter to us all that GKC and GBS so ably manifested in their time. 2 Much depends on feasting this year's St. Jerome's Feast for Catholic University Education, the Chancellor John weeney Award was presented to the renowned classicist and self-described "anthropologist of everyday life,'' Margaret Visser. Best known for her conversations with Peter Gzowski on Morningside and her book Much Depends on Dinner, her presence and that of her husband, Colin, at the fourth annual Feast on October 15th was an occasion for reflection and laughter. Margaret detailed her own intellectual and spiritual pilgrimage with stories of three churches. The first was Notre Dame in Paris, where, as a student at the Sorbonne, she found respite from the tedium of lectures.

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