The relations between religion and education in Quebec have radically changed between 1996 and 2008 : the Quebec school system has become secularized and Christian religion no longer dominates this institution. After examining the process of the deconfessionalization of schools in the province, I distinguish between two normative conceptions of the role of religion in the school curriculum : a confessional approach, based on the transmission of faith, and a secularized conception, which considers religion an object of critical knowledge. The new program of ethics and religious culture instituted in Quebec schools as of September 2008 respects the principles of the second conception, but its aim of civic education appears idealist in certain ways.