The mass demonstrations, typically ignored in the rest of international news, attracted the attention of the French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, who compared the Catholics well represented in the demonstrations, with Muslim fundamentalists, from the Tablet.
Mr Valls, who ten days ago accompanied President François Hollande to the Vatican, told fellow Socialist lawmakers that “extreme right-wing Catholics” opposed gay marriage, legalised last year, and current plans to make access to abortion easier.
This Catholic far Right, which he did not define more clearly, had found allies among political conservatives, he said in an apparent reference to the hundreds of thousands who marched against same-sex marriage last year.
“We must wage combat because there is a danger,” he told the meeting reviewing the current state of France’s trademark secular system of laïcité.German news reports "tens of thousands" of protesters in the streets.
5 comments:
I suppose the government could counter the protestors with large display photos of Hollande and Pope Francis smiling at each other and making merry.
God give strength to these protestors. Maybe one day they will be noticed by Francis and give him pause to think about the wisdom of meeting and greeting and laughing with the persecutors of the Catholic Church.
I heard hundreds of thousands. Thank God for their actions. They fight for all of us.
Amazing! One reads that the faith is almost dead in France but it seems whoever comprises the remnant is active and standing up for their faith. Persecution coming in other places too, bit by bit. May we all be determined to stand fast, no matter the cost.
No one who takes part in the annual three day walking pilgrimage at Pentecost between the cathedrals dedicated to Our Lady, Notre Dame de Paris to Notre Dame de Chartres, could say that the Catholic Faith is "almost dead in France". Between 10.000 to 15.000 people take part in this beautiful traditional Catholic event, nearly all of them young!
The French government can be credited for the fact that French Catholics, and people with Christian values, have learned to unite against dangerous family policies. These demonstrations are attended by all ages, but mostly young people and young families with their children.
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