Canadian panel urges ban of military chaplains of certain religions
An advisory panel to the Canadian Department of National Defence wants to rid the Canadian Armed Forces of military chaplains whose religious faiths do not openly promote diversity.
The advisory panel on systemic racism and discrimination made more than 40 recommendations, among them to consider not hiring “chaplaincy applicants affiliated with religious groups whose values are not aligned with those of the Defence Team.”
As examples of such values in its April 25 report, the advisory panel cites “some churches’ exclusion of women from their priesthoods” and “sexist notions embedded in their religious dogmas.”
Bishop Scott McCaig, the Catholic military ordinary for Canada, called the section on redefining the chaplaincy “deeply problematic and regrettable.”
In a six-page response prepared for chaplains and members of the archdiocese for Catholics who serve in the Canadian Armed Forces, Bishop McCaig stressed that all chaplains are committed to “inclusive, nonjudgmental and universal care of service members, regardless of their religious or ethical convictions.”
“Many of the pejorative remarks would appear to be directed to Catholics, as well as some other Christians, and amounted to mere caricatures of what we actually profess,” he wrote. He said the advisory panel’s report was full of “errors and oversimplifications.”
Watch: Discussion between Emma Webb and Rafe Heydel-Mankoo, New Culture Forum (at around 45 minutes)