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Posted yesterday at 11am
I would like to understand how the Canadian Catholic Church is still legally permitted to prohibit women from holding positions in their hierarchy (e.g. becoming priests).
Lucie Marchand
The Catholic Church forbidding women from becoming priests, doesn’t that violate our charters of rights and freedoms that advocate gender equality?
Unfortunately for women who want to be priests, no. Because charters allow religious organizations to self-regulate their religious practices.
Let’s get straight to the case of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms: it affects our laws, the decisions of governments and the actions of the state, but not the decisions of the church.
The Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms applies to the decisions of the church and other private actors in Quebec (e.g., employers, restaurants, landlords, etc.) in a variety of circumstances.
Except that Section 20 of the Quebec Charter specifically allows religious non-profit organizations to exclude people when justified on religious grounds. These religiously based exclusions are considered non-discriminatory.
Conclusion: The Church can exclude women from the priesthood and this still respects the Quebec Charter. Because this exclusion is based on the religious criteria of the Church, which assumes that only men can be priests.
Section 20 of the Quebec Charter protects freedom of religion and association (section 3), to the detriment of protections against discrimination and sex and gender equality (section 10). He defends the ability of religious organizations to have their own rules for practicing their religion.
“This allows religious organizations to continue their religious practices with decisions that would not be allowed without that religious dimension,” summarizes McGill University Law School Dean Robert Leckey, professor of constitutional law.
According to Robert Leckey, the Church’s ability to ban women from the priesthood has never been challenged in court. Such a lawsuit would have almost no chance of success since it is a “matter at the heart of religious practices” protected by Articles 3 and 20 of the Quebec Charter, he believes.
The Catholic Church may only hire employees of the Catholic faith for its key religious positions (e.g. priestly office) and refuse to hire employees of other religions or atheists.
Another example of the latitude given to religious organizations in the name of freedom of religion (Article 3): they are not required to enter into same-sex marriages. The Catholic Church does not celebrate. For its part, the State of Quebec is required to celebrate civil unions and same-sex marriages under the Quebec Civil Code and Charters of Rights.
However, there are limits to what the church can do in the name of religious freedom.
When providing a public service on behalf of the state, a religious organization can no longer play by its own rules: it must behave in a non-discriminatory manner. An example ? A Christian organization that operates a residential home for people with disabilities cannot refuse to hire a caregiver because she is a lesbian (a “sin,” the church says), an Ontario court ruled in 20101.
You may be tempted to ask the following question: Isn’t the celebration of marriage a public service of government?
Nice try, but no.
In fact, it was the Quebec legislature that ruled that all marriages performed by competent clergymen are civilly valid (Article 366 of the Quebec Civil Code). “We decide to attribute civil effects to a religious activity,” says Robert Leckey. All Canadian provinces made the same choice as Quebec. Theoretically, however, the legislature is not obliged to approve at the civil level all church marriages contracted by competent ministers of religion. He could have made a different choice.
Quebec also encourages marriages performed by notaries, mayors, clerks, and any other person designated by the Justice Department as a competent celebrant. Civil registrars are obliged to offer this public service without discrimination. They cannot take advantage of the exception in Section 20 of the Quebec Charter reserved for religious organizations.
If there are no women priests within the Catholic Church, there are women priests within the Anglican Church, in Canada as in England. Women can also enter the priesthood within the Lutheran Church of Sweden: they outnumber men there.
Will women in the Catholic Church one day be able to become priests?
There are no signs that the Vatican will change its mind. Except that Catholic women openly challenge the Church. Women’s Ordination Worldwide advocates for the ordination of women in the Catholic Church. In particular, its members organize events and ordination ceremonies that are not recognized by the Vatican. About 300 women became “priestesses” in this way. They are considered excommunicated from the Church.
The Catholic Church would have a great interest in modernizing itself. To accept women and non-binary people as priests. committing marriages between same-sex spouses.
A person’s beliefs have nothing to do with their gender or sexual orientation.
It’s not 1950 anymore.
1st Human Rights Commission of Ontario v. Christian Horizonte, 2010 ONSC 2105 (CanLII)