Network: Société Radio-Canada (SRC) TV Network
Broadcast Run: 1955
Broadcast Medium: Television
Ever since the 1960s, Le Jour du Seigneur offered its listeners a liturgical service on the Radio-Canada French language network. Every week, Le Jour du Seigneur visited a community and its House of Worship. The broadcast of the mass was the result of a close collaboration between the TV production team and the parishioners.
Radio-Canada broadcast its first TV mass all across the country on Christmas Eve 1953. Mgr Paul-Émile Léger said the mass live from the Montreal Forum. The altar was built up in the boxing and wrestling ring.
Beginning in 1955, Radio-Canada broadcast the Sunday service every week. The program was first called La Messe, then in 1962, it became Le Jour du Seigneur, emulating the mass that was being televised in France. In 1968, Radio-Canada rebaptized the program Le 8ième Jour, but its earlier name was brought back in 1969.For a while in the 1960s and early 1970s, Radio-Canada broadcast the mass from its own studios. After that, Le Jour du Seigneur travelled to dioceses all across Canada. Radio-Canada’s regional stations participated in the production of several of these programs, which were filmed in churches and chapels from every corner of the country.