Archbishop: Prayer ban violates fundamental freedoms
La Presse published an op‑ed Monday from the Catholic archbishop of Montreal saying the impending ban on public prayer violates fundamental freedoms.
But I notice two telling flaws here. One, both the CTV article and the La Presse article identify Christian Lepine as the archbishop of Montreal. Neither one specify that he’s a Roman Catholic prelate. We have other denominations here too, but in Quebec, default is always going to be Catholic.
The other is more subtle. Lepine starts his article “La prière, dans sa forme la plus simple, est un élan intérieur.” That may be true of most Christians. But it isn’t so true of Muslims, whose basic practice of five prayers a day involves washing, physical gestures and prostrations. A Christian can, I suppose, commune with the deity inside their head without any prep, but a Muslim has a more external practice by its nature. The archbishop should be aware of that.
Joey 17:38 on 2025-09-01 Permalink
I’m Jewish, so this is a sincere question – aren’t Catholics supposed to pray at mass, ie at a gathering officiated by priests? I’m sure Muslims can mumble prayers to themselves too, but don’t both religions effectively demand communal prayer?
Blork 17:40 on 2025-09-01 Permalink
I’m not an expert, but I don’t think the Muslim practice of ritualized prayer five times a day in any way excludes the “inner impulse” to pray on-the-fly or as the need or feeling arises. In the same way that Catholics going to mass every Sunday (or every day in some really strict communities) excludes ad-hoc prayers when the feeling moves them.
Kate 19:37 on 2025-09-01 Permalink
Joey, Catholics are supposed to go to mass on Sundays or, in recent years, permissibly on Saturday afternoons instead. Either way, they’re supposed to go weekly and on a few other special days in the calendar, Christmas being the most obvious example.
Mass is defined as a very specific set of readings and ritual, some of which varies throughout the year, but is fundamentally grouped around the magic bit where the priest turns bread and wine into Jesus. Only an ordained priest can do this and it has to be a man, no women allowed.
Catholics have various gestures they have to make communally as well – genuflecting, crossing themselves, giving the handshake of peace at one point during the service, taking the communion host and so on.
Blork, my point isn’t that there isn’t the option of the “inner impulse” but that, in different ways, for Muslims and Catholics, a certain amount of external gesturing is also included in the basic practice.
It’s just so Québécois to feel that crossing yourself or genuflecting and all the standing and sitting and kneeling at various points in the mass are “normal” while making Salah is alien and invasive. Even while almost nobody in Quebec goes to mass any more anyway.