This from lifesitenews.com and written by Antonino Cambria Thu Sep 10, 2026 - 2:31 pm ED: Catholic school gives up gov’t funding due to radical ‘prayer ban’ in Canada - LifeSite
"MONTREAL (LifeSiteNews) — The 130-year-old Jesuit-run Loyola High School announced last week that it will forgo all provincial funding and become fully independent rather than comply with Quebec’s Bill 9, which cuts funding from schools that teach religious curriculum and includes extreme measures that would have forced the school to abandon its Catholic mission.
In a September 4 statement, Loyola President Fouad Maroun and the chair of the board of governors, Patrick M. Shea, announced that, after careful deliberation, the high school’s board of governors and the Jesuit board of directors unanimously voted to become independent and give up government funding.
Quebec’s controversial Bill 9, officially entitled “An Act respecting the reinforcement of laicity in Quebec,” passed earlier this year, bars religious schools, universities, daycare centers, and health institutions that receive provincial funding from teaching religious curriculum and holding religious activities such as Mass during school hours and public prayer, among other draconian measures.
“Quebec’s Bill 9 requires schools like Loyola to choose between government subsidy and our Jesuit, Catholic mission. After a year of careful study, our Board of Governors and our Jesuit Board of Directors unanimously elected to protect our mission: Loyola will forgo provincial subsidies and become a fully independent school, on the timeline the law allows,” the school’s statement said.
“For 130 years, Loyola has formed young people in mind, heart, and spirit as lived daily in our classrooms, our chapel, our fields, and our service to others. That is what this decision protects,” the statement continued.
The school further stressed that, after considerable discussion on how to respond to this law even before it passed, its boards ultimately determined that, if Loyola were to comply with Bill 9’s stipulations and continue receiving government funding, it would fail to “remain faithful” to its Catholic mission.
That work kept leading us back to one fundamental question: what is the mission of Loyola High School? The answer has not changed since 1896: to form young people who are intellectually competent, open to growth, religious, loving, and committed to doing justice, in an education where faith is not only a classroom subject but also woven through the entire school day. It is what so many of you told us must never be abandoned. Under the new law, keeping the subsidy would require Loyola to change important aspects of how we live our Jesuit, Catholic mission. After careful discernment, we concluded that we cannot make those changes and remain faithful to who we are.
As previously reported by LifeSite’s Anthony Murdoch, Bill 9 passed into law in April following a 76–28 vote. Quebec Premier François Legault’s Coalition Avenir Québec and the Parti Québécois backed the legislation, while the Liberals and Québec solidaire voted against it.
READ: New Quebec ‘secularism’ law puts restrictions on public prayer and religious symbols
In addition to restricting religious curriculum and prayer, the law also bans wearing hijabs and turbans for those working in schools, daycares, and universities. It could also prevent teachers from wearing crucifix jewelry even in a Catholic school and ban any religious symbol from appearing in any communications from public institutions. It would also ban prayer rooms in public institutions.
In a March statement just before the law was passed, the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops warned that the legislation “restrict(s) fundamental rights without compelling justification.”
“We remain convinced that, despite the amendments made to the bill, people of faith will see their fundamental rights restricted without compelling justification,” Bishop Martin Laliberté, the president of the Assembly of Quebec Catholic Bishops, wrote at the time.
Other critics have warned that the radical law is an attack on people’s religious rights. Nevertheless, Quebec says it will use the notwithstanding clause to ensure that the legislation remains law, thwarting any legal challenges made against it.
Almost seven years ago, Quebec passed a law that banned teachers, judges, police officers, and other officials from wearing religious symbols. However, Roberge has told reporters that the new legislation is needed because people have “advanced.”
More recently, in August 2025, Quebec announced that it was looking to ban prayer in public places after Muslim groups had begun praying in the province’s streets and parks.
READ: Quebec moves to ban prayer in public places
Earlier this year, the historically Catholic province also expanded its so-called religious symbols ban to include all school staff, meaning no one who works at a school could wear crucifixes or crosses of any kind."
End of very revealing article...
A win for the good guys! And a JESUIT run school, too!!!
Pray for the defeat of those modernist, political monsters and for their conversion to the Catholic Faith...
Viva Cristo Rey! Bl. Fr. Miguel Pro, Fr. Emil Kapaun, and Fr. Vincent Capodanno, pray for us..
St. Michael the Archangel, defend us in battle...
Our Lady Help of Christians, pray for us!
St. Joseph, pray for us!!
Gene DeLalla
