By Daniel Payne
CNA Staff, Dec 11, 2024 / 12:40 pm
Bishops in Quebec are expressing alarm after a prominent government official said he wanted to end prayer in public spaces in the Canadian province.
Quebec Premier François Legault said last week that praying in public parks and streets “is not something we want in Quebec.” The premier said he wished to “send a very clear message to the Islamists” who he suggested were a danger to “the values that are fundamental to Quebec.”
“When we want to pray, we go to a church, we go to a mosque, but not in public places,” he said. “And yes, we will look at the means where we can act legally or otherwise.”
In a Monday letter, Trois-Rivières Bishop Martin Laliberté, the president of the Assembly of Catholic Bishops of Quebec, said the bishops there were “deeply concerned about the erasure of people and believing communities from Quebec’s public space.”
The suggested ban, the bishop argued, “would be inapplicable” under Canadian law.
“Public parks welcome all kinds of practices that require temporarily limiting access to a given sector: think of a ball or ballgame,” Laliberté wrote. “That some of these practices claim a more or less assertive spiritual or religious dimension is just as legitimate.”
Arguing that “praying is not dangerous,” the bishop asserted that the effects of the proposed ban would fall on “minority religious groups that are perceived as different and, for this reason, threatening to Quebec identity.” Catholicism, they noted, has long been an integral part of Quebec’s identity.
“For their part, like Pope Francis, the Catholic bishops are of the opinion that sincere and benevolent interreligious dialogue is now essential to build a resilient society in these times of environmental and socio-economic crises,” Laliberté said.
The bishop pointed to the U.N.’s 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which guarantees freedom of religion. That document demonstrates the “very real risk that authorities try to confine the association to the private sphere for religious or spiritual purposes,” he said.
It is “essential to act with great caution, in order to respect the rights and dignity of all people,” the prelate said.
Tensions have arisen in Canada in recent years over the country’s relatively high level of Muslim residents. Data indicate that the share of the population identifying as Muslim more than doubled from 2001 to 2021.
Reported attacks on Canadian Muslims have allegedly skyrocketed in recent years. Among the more shocking incidents, in January 2017, six people were killed and 17 injured after gunmen opened fire inside the Islamic Cultural Center of Quebec.
Pope Francis at the time “strongly condemned” the violence, asking God “for the gift of mutual respect and peace” amid the tragedy.
