Military

Canadian military Bishop Scott McCaig says he wants the federal government to go “back to the drawing board” with its new policy on prayer in official settings.

Doubtless according to plan, bureaucratic banishment of public prayer by Canada’s military chaplains went virtually unnoticed amid the perpetual media crisis that filters into Canadian summer consciousness.

While completing my last term as a citizenship judge in 2018, I got an email from Ottawa with the directive: “Every citizenship ceremony will (now) be opened by a First Nations Elder, offering a Native Spirituality Prayer.”

Despite the calls of several Conservative Members of Parliament, including Andrew Lawton, new military personnel instructions from the current Liberal government are not novel attacks on religious freedom.

Canada’s Catholic military bishop is questioning how meaningful the consultation was behind a new Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) policy restricting faith-specific prayer at official ceremonies.

Many have been shocked and dismayed by the new Canadian Forces General Instruction from the Commander of Military Personnel decreeing a “spiritual neutrality” upon all Canadian Armed Forces Chaplains.

A new Canadian Armed Forces policy that bars military chaplains from offering faith-specific prayers at official events with mandatory personnel attendance is drawing a response from military faith advisers as well as calls in Ottawa for its reversal.

“God etc.” In that two-word nutshell, the current federal government has expressed the fullness of its utter contempt for religious faith and religious believers. 

Thanking members of the military and the police for their service, Pope Francis asked them to be on guard against seeing other people as enemies and instead dedicate their lives to defending life, peace and justice.