Has Quebec Premier François Legault pushed too far with his assertion that public prayer should be banned in the province?

Durham MP Jamil Jivani has joined forces with a group of Protestant pastors to ignite a national conversation on the challenges faced by Canadian Christians in the public square – just as Quebec������Ƶapp premier is threatening to ban all prayer in public spaces.

When Terry Vanderpool moved from Texas to Alberta two years ago, the biggest adjustment wasn’t to the cold winters. It was to the cold shoulder given the Catholic Church in Canada.

A little over one year ago the Canadian Human Rights Commission (CHRC) was attracting scorn for a discussion paper declaring that statutory holidays such as Christmas are a manifestation of the “discrimination against religious minorities in Canada” and “grounded in Canada������Ƶapp history of colonialism.”

The commonplace complaint that the Church exists in a post-Christian society tends to misplace the common sense fact that the Church emerged from, and transformed, pre-Christian society.

The Pope������Ƶapp visit to Canada and apology to Indigenous peoples was a profound occasion for our country. His visit also raises important questions about the proper relationship between political and religious institutions. 

Elsewhere in this issue of The Catholic Register, former Ontario MPP John Milloy makes an eloquent case for why and how Catholics should sustain involvement in political life.

The Catholic civic engagement organization Catholic Conscience is hosting a Nov. 25 webinar to encourage people to volunteer to serve on non-profit and charity boards.

We need not sit sipping Lysol lemonade and Clorox cocktails in the left field bleachers with Donald Trump to insist that recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic is too important to be left exclusively to politicians and health care technocrats.

The Archdiocese of Toronto has launched a non-partisan initiative to empower parishioners in their engagements with civic leaders and to help them become active in the public square.