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From Lesbian Atheist to Stay-at-Home Mother of Six: Quebec Journalist Tells Her Story
Life Site News ^ | May 20, 2010 | Georges Buscemi

Posted on 05/20/2010 12:03:05 PM PDT by GonzoII

Thursday May 20, 2010


From Lesbian Atheist to Stay-at-Home Mother of Six: Quebec Journalist Tells Her Story

Brigitte Bedard captivates 200-strong crowd with her conversion story at May 15 Quebec Life Coalition Conference in Quebec City

By Georges Buscemi

May 20, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) - “I was an atheist for as long as I could remember” recalled Brigitte Bedard, a young-looking 41-year-old journalist and stay at home mother of six with cropped tousled brown hair and stylish thick-framed glasses. She was addressing a crowd of 200 participants at the Quebec Life Coalition pro-life conference on May 15 in Quebec City.

While Bedard is less well known than the conference’s keynote speaker – Cardinal Marc Ouellet – whose staunchly pro-life statements made later that afternoon were seized on by the anti-life Quebec media, she might be the speaker who most touched hearts that Saturday afternoon.

Ms. Bedard grew up at a time when Quebec society was undergoing what historians call the “Quiet Revolution,” a period of time from the early-sixties to the mid seventies when Quebec society shed its Christian heritage and adopted secular values. “I was born in 1968 — talk about bad luck” she joked.

Bedard had a typical childhood in a non-religious household, and went to the notoriously leftist Université du Québec à Montréal, where she studied literature, eventually graduating with an MA. “I filled my mind with all the radical feminist literature — I drank it all up” she said.

She began a series of heterosexual relationships, which all ended badly. “Prodded along by what I was reading, I began thinking that since all my heterosexual relationships were failures, that I might be a lesbian.” And in fact she dove into the lesbian lifestyle, and admitted that she revelled in it for quite some time. “It was actually a very good time, in a way, being with a big gang of girls, tearing up the town, chain-smoking like there was no tomorrow. I was also very sexually active.”

Despite the fun and the excitement of the lifestyle, she felt broken, she recalls. “I was a mental wreck. I just felt that I was spinning out of control, that I was keeping appearances but I was miserable inside.” Things came to a head when, inexplicably, she broke into tears one night at 3 am and began shouting in her empty apartment in a trendy district of Montreal, imploring God to “take her away.” “Here I was, a militant feminist lesbian atheist lying on my apartment floor crying my head off imploring God. I wasn’t in my right mind, but I was desperate for help.”

She began seeking help, meandering in and out of countless 12-step type programs, in the hopes of finding some kind of solution for her anxiety and “messed-up life.” To make matters worse, she had just quit smoking: “I was suddenly forced to face life in the raw, without any protection or buffer.”

At wit’s end, she recounted how someone she knew talked about visiting “the monks” at the famous Saint-Benoît Abbey in Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, Quebec. The idea, as bizarre as it seemed to her, intrigued her, and she went, but not without reservations. “I went to the monastery armed with all the contempt and hatred for the patriarchal Church that I had stored up from years of radical feminist studies. For radical feminists the Church is basically enemy #1.”

She entered the convent and was assigned a room and a monk with whom she could converse twice a day. “For three days in a row, two hours a day, I badgered, screamed at, practically foamed at the mouth in the face of this monk, dredging up basically every insult, cliché, dirty thing that I could think of, or invent about Christianity. I was so mad, so hurt and angry, and I was dishing it all out to this monk, who never said a word the whole time, but instead just looked at me, nodding his head.”

Then, at the end of those three days, something happened that changed her life forever. “It was the third day, the sixth hour of screaming. We were about to wrap up yet again. I was basically done screaming, there was a pause, and then the monk looked up and said to me “you have no idea, absolutely no idea how much God loves you; He made you out of nothing, he knows you, you have no idea how much he loves you, His daughter. So don’t feel ashamed, let it all go. Give it up, give it all up, give your life up to Him … He loves you so much.”

Those simple words at that crucial time “absolutely floored her” she recalled. From that moment on, her life had utterly changed. “I am His daughter, there are no two ways about it, and I can’t explain it.” She admits she is at pains to explain exactly what it was that caused her conversion: “I just say that God floored me, staggered me; I didn’t convert myself, he brought me to Him.”

She now works as an independent journalist and happily married stay-at-home mother of six. Life for her now is not all peaches and cream, however. “When I need quiet, there’s nothing I can do except for one thing: get up at 4 am. Which I do, pretty often, just to get some peace.” Remarking on the differences between her life now and in her lesbian days, she quipped: “Living with a man is definitely a pain, but living with a woman all the time was a living hell.”

Brigitte Bedard, who writes for the Nouvel Informateur Catholique, was one of four conference participants (plus keynote speaker Cardinal Marc Ouellet) at the annual Quebec Life Coalition conference at Quebec City on May 15. Video recordings of the talks (in original French, or dubbed in English) are available through Quebec Life Coalition.

URL: http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/may/10052001.html


Copyright © LifeSiteNews.com. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivatives License. You may republish this article or portions of it without request provided the content is not altered and it is clearly attributed to "LifeSiteNews.com". Any website publishing of complete or large portions of original LifeSiteNews articles MUST additionally include a live link to www.LifeSiteNews.com. The link is not required for excerpts. Republishing of articles on LifeSiteNews.com from other sources as noted is subject to the conditions of those sources.


TOPICS: General Discusssion
KEYWORDS: catholic; conversions; homosexualagenda
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She sure received a great grace.
1 posted on 05/20/2010 12:03:05 PM PDT by GonzoII
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To: GonzoII

Great story.


2 posted on 05/20/2010 12:05:10 PM PDT by Ueriah
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To: GonzoII
“...... but living with a woman all the time was a living hell.”

was she living with my wife??

3 posted on 05/20/2010 12:07:19 PM PDT by llevrok (A stranger in my own country)
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To: GonzoII

In return for your repentence, God granted you six children. I would say that is one sure sign of His blessings.


4 posted on 05/20/2010 12:08:19 PM PDT by PGR88
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To: GonzoII
Wonderful story...I wish this would happen to many, many more people.

Welcome back, Brigitte.

5 posted on 05/20/2010 12:11:29 PM PDT by Allegra (Pablo is very wily.)
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To: GonzoII

That was a wonderful story of GOds’ great grace.

Thank you for posting that.


6 posted on 05/20/2010 12:12:54 PM PDT by Grunthor (Faster than the speed of smell.)
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To: GonzoII
“Living with a man is definitely a pain, but living with a woman all the time was a living hell.”

Been there. Done that.

Seriously, the whole 'screaming at the monk' thing is pretty strange but I'm happy she found Jesus.

7 posted on 05/20/2010 12:13:00 PM PDT by far sider
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To: llevrok

Ouch!


8 posted on 05/20/2010 12:15:30 PM PDT by POWERSBOOTHEFAN (Blessed Be The Name Of The Lord,For His Name Alone Is Exaulted)
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To: GonzoII

Quote from a woman: “Living with a man is definitely a pain, but living with a woman all the time was a living hell.”

Ladies, this is why you don’t and should never want men (yours, and also, in general) to just act like you do.

Of course, in this life, there is nothing that can make a woman’s life perfect. Your guy won’t be perfect. Your kids won’t be perfect. Your car won’t be perfect. The temperature will never be perfect, and if it’s not the temperature it’s the humidity. What you own will never be perfect. Work will not be perfect. Your boss and co-workers will not be perfect. Your parents, uggh, don’t get me started, aren’t perfect. Thus, you will complain about these things every day of your life. Generally to your man, parents and friends. Sometimes to therapists.

Just be hopeful God will give you enough strength, that, after He has returned and made everything right, you will be able to live well without having anything to complain about.


9 posted on 05/20/2010 12:19:06 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I'd like to tell you, but then I'd have to kill you.)
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To: far sider
Seriously, the whole 'screaming at the monk' thing is pretty strange but I'm happy she found Jesus.
The "screaming at the monk thing" IMO was caused from the release of many demons. I've seen it and read about it a number of times. Demons aren't pleasant.
10 posted on 05/20/2010 12:20:12 PM PDT by mlizzy ("Do not wait for leaders; do it alone, person to person" --Mother Teresa.)
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To: GonzoII
“Prodded along by what I was reading, I began thinking that since all my heterosexual relationships were failures, that I might be a lesbian.....Remarking on the differences between her life now and in her lesbian days, she quipped: “Living with a man is definitely a pain, but living with a woman all the time was a living hell.”

You know, it is interesting that bad relationships with men color *both* lesbians and homosexual men's attitudes. In both cases, there seems to be the same problem relating to males--but both get along fine with females. In an odd, backwards way it actually supports the concept of masculine primacy.

Beautiful story, though, God bless her and God bless the Quebecois.

11 posted on 05/20/2010 12:21:25 PM PDT by Claud
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To: GonzoII

What a great story! Wow. Tears!


12 posted on 05/20/2010 12:29:14 PM PDT by Mad Dawg ("Be kind to everyone you meet, for every person is fighting a great battle" -- St. Ephraim)
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To: Quix

Read it. The edifice strikes again!


13 posted on 05/20/2010 12:31:14 PM PDT by Mad Dawg ("Be kind to everyone you meet, for every person is fighting a great battle" -- St. Ephraim)
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To: Secret Agent Man

A store that sells husbands has just opened where a woman may go to choose a husband from among many men. The store is composed of 6 floors, and the men increase in positive attributes as the shopper ascends the flights.

There is, however, a catch. As you open the door to any floor you may choose a man from that floor, but if you go up a floor, you cannot go back down except to exit the building.

So a woman goes to the shopping center to find a husband.

On the first floor the sign on the door reads:

Floor 1 - These men have jobs.

The woman reads the sign and says to herself, “Well, that’s better than my last boyfriend, but I wonder what’s further up?” So up she goes.

The second floor sign reads:

Floor 2 - These men have jobs and love kids.

The woman remarks to herself, “That’s great, but I wonder what’s further up?” And up she goes again.

The third floor sign reads:

Floor 3 - These men have jobs, love kids and are extremely good looking.

“Hmmm, better” she says. “But I wonder what’s upstairs?”

The fourth floor sign reads:

Floor 4 - These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking and help with the housework.

“Wow!” exclaims the woman, “very tempting. BUT, there must be more further up!” And again she heads up another flight.

The fifth floor sign reads:

Floor 5 - These men have jobs, love kids, are extremely good looking, help with the housework and have a strong romantic streak.

“Oh, mercy me! But just think... what must be awaiting me further on?” So up to the sixth floor she goes.

The sixth floor sign reads:

Floor 6 - You are visitor 6,875,953,012 to this floor. There are no men on this floor. This floor exists solely as proof that women are impossible to please.


14 posted on 05/20/2010 12:34:58 PM PDT by Ro_Thunder ("Other than ending SLAVERY, FASCISM, NAZISM and COMMUNISM, war has never solved anything")
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To: GonzoII

Misogynists coming out of the woodwork like slugs out of the herb garden.


15 posted on 05/20/2010 1:39:44 PM PDT by Tax-chick ("Amateurish," agreed Janet Napolitano, the White House amateurishness czar.)
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To: PGR88

And look at her face ... the Grace of God in Christ has transformed her so much His peace shines out through her eyes!


16 posted on 05/20/2010 1:52:05 PM PDT by MHGinTN (Obots, believing they cannot be deceived, it is impossible to convince them when they are deceived.)
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To: netmilsmom; thefrankbaum; markomalley; Tax-chick; GregB; saradippity; Berlin_Freeper; Litany; ...
Catholic Ping
Please freepmail me if you want on/off this list


17 posted on 05/20/2010 1:53:01 PM PDT by NYer ("Where Peter is, there is the Church." - St. Ambrose of Milan)
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To: GonzoII

What a wonderful story. She seems to be at peace now.


18 posted on 05/20/2010 1:56:08 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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To: Tax-chick

Lol! So true! As if men are all that easy....


19 posted on 05/20/2010 2:00:09 PM PDT by Amberdawn (As you go through life brother, whatever your goal, keep your eye on the donut and not on the hole.)
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To: Tax-chick

It is slug season. :)


20 posted on 05/20/2010 2:05:49 PM PDT by trisham (Zen is not easy. It takes effort to attain nothingness. And then what do you have? Bupkis.)
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