Editing Pierre Trudeau (section)

=== Religious beliefs ===
Trudeau was [[Catholic Church|Catholic]] and attended [[Mass in the Catholic Church|Mass]] throughout his life. While mostly private about his beliefs, he made it clear that he was a believer, stating, in an interview with the ''[[United Church Observer]]'' in 1971: "I believe in life after death, I believe in God and I'm a Christian." Trudeau maintained, however, that he preferred to impose constraints on himself rather than have them imposed from the outside. In this sense, he believed he was more like a Protestant than a Catholic of the era in which he was schooled.{{sfn|Trudeau (1996)|pp=302–303}}

[[Michael W. Higgins]], a former president of Catholic [[St. Thomas University (Canada)|St. Thomas University]], researched Trudeau's spirituality and found that it incorporated elements of three Catholic traditions. The first of these was the [[Society of Jesus|Jesuits]], who provided his education up to the college level. Trudeau frequently displayed the logic and love of argument consistent with that tradition. A second great spiritual influence in Trudeau's life was the [[Dominican Order]]. According to Michel Gourgues, professor at [[Dominican University College]], Trudeau "considered himself a lay Dominican".{{attribution needed|date=May 2016}} He studied philosophy under Dominican Father [[Louis-Marie Régis]] and remained close to him throughout his life, regarding Régis as "spiritual director and friend". Another element in Trudeau's spirituality was an appreciation for [[contemplation]] acquired from his association with the [[Benedictines|Benedictine]] tradition. According to Higgins, Trudeau was convinced of the centrality of [[Christian meditation|meditation]] in a life fully lived. Trudeau meditated regularly after being initiated into [[Transcendental Meditation]] by the [[Maharishi Mahesh Yogi]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Maharishi: The Biography of the Man Who Gave Transcendental Meditation to the World|last=Mason|first=Paul|isbn=1-85230-571-1|location=Shaftesbury, Dorset|oclc=31133549|year = 1994}}</ref> He took retreats at [[Saint-Benoît-du-Lac, Quebec]] and regularly attended [[Liturgy of the Hours|Hours]] and Mass at Montreal's Benedictine community.{{sfn|Higgins, M. (2004)|pp=26–30}}

Although never publicly theological in the way of [[Margaret Thatcher]] or [[Tony Blair]], nor evangelical, in the way of [[Jimmy Carter]] or [[George W. Bush]], Trudeau's spirituality, according to Michael W. Higgins, "suffused, anchored, and directed his inner life. In no small part, it defined him."{{sfn|Higgins, M. (2004)|pp=26–30}} Prior to his career in politics and evident shift towards religion and to practicing Catholicism, Trudeau had been a [[secular humanist]] and worked as a board member of the [[Humanist Canada|Humanist Fellowship of Montreal]] until moving to Ottawa to necome an MP in 1965.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://thewalrus.ca/the-morgentaler-effect/|work=The Walrus|title=The Morgentaler Effect|last=Sumner|first=Wayne|quote= He eventually joined the Humanist Fellowship of Montreal, a group that shared his commitment to rational inquiry and his disdain for religious dogma. One of its board members at the time was a certain Pierre Elliott Trudeau, and after he vacated his seat to move to Ottawa in 1965 the headstrong doctor was elected to replace him.}}</ref>