Quebec’s proposed prayer ban ‘like forbidding thought itself,’ Montreal archbishop says

Quebec City, Canada, Sep 8, 2025 / 17:16 pm

The Quebec government’s call for a ban on all public prayer raises “serious concerns” about a democratic society’s fundamental freedoms, Montreal Archbishop Christian Lépine said in a public letter.

Such a ban would discourage gestures fostering hope and solidarity in a world already “shaken” by so many crises — economic, social, and environmental, the archbishop said.

“At its core, to forbid public prayer would be somewhat like forbidding thought itself,” he said in a letter posted to the archdiocese’s website Sept. 2 and published in the Montreal newspaper La Presse.

Lépine said the proposal by Quebec Premier François Legault to end prayer in public places goes squarely against the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, Quebec’s own Cha