Abstract
According to a survey of French-speaking Catholics in Montreal, rites of passage have supplanted Sunday Mass. At the same time, Mass-goers demonstrate broad acceptance of the ritual modifications which have resulted from Vatican II. Their participation is based on an intimate religiosity, on a level considered first and foremost as the social locus of the relationship with the divine. Mass-goers are looking for an atmosphere of recollection, and Bible readings are central to services. They are reluctant to allow their religious experience to be dictated by the rite, while at the same time acknowledging the contribution its institutional character makes to the historical continuity of their belief and culture. This reluctance appears to be related more to level of education than to the frequency of their attendance at Sunday Mass.