Posted on 10/08/2004 7:28:14 PM PDT by Land of the Irish
TOULON, France (Reuters) - The French law meant to banish Muslim headscarves from state schools is finding unexpected targets in southern France, where some principals have begun turning away Roman Catholic chaplains.
Five priests have been barred from state schools in the Var region despite the fact that French law has long allowed them entry to meet Catholic pupils there, according to the local diocesan spokesman Father Charles Mallard.
One school in this Mediterranean port city barred a priest this week because he was wearing a cassock, the traditional black robe he wore last year without problem before the new law barring conspicuous religious symbols came into force.
"These decisions were taken unilaterally without consulting the chaplains," local Bishop Dominique Rey said.
Determined to stand firm against Muslim fundamentalism without singling out Islam, French lawmakers this year banned "conspicuous religious symbols" and indicated this meant the headscarf, the Jewish skullcap and large Christian crosses.
This has created problems for Sikh pupils, who now cannot wear their turbans although they are not a religious symbol, and now raised questions about the loophole in France's strict secularism that allows chaplains to work at state schools.
The teachers' union SNES supported the schools' stand, saying in a statement: "The law on secularism applies not only to pupils but to teachers and other personnel who are part of the teaching or logistical staff of a school."
Teachers have long been barred from wearing any religious or political symbols so as not to influence their pupils.
"How can you explain to pupils that the law is the same for everyone if we make an exception like that?" asked Jean-Pierre Andrau, a history teacher at the lycee where Father Antoine Galland was turned away.
Wearing an open-necked black shirt, diocesan spokesman Mallard said Galland wore a cassock because he belonged to a traditionalist Catholic community. Most chaplains wear black suits with Roman collars or secular clothes.
"Prior to the Second World War, the various rightist groups in France, such as the Camelots du Roi and Action Francaise were very pro-Catholic, but the victory of the Anglo-Americans (and French Communists) in 1945 ensured that the Catholics would be tarred with "collaboration" and excluded from the political and cultural scene."
Indeed, Catholics everywhere are on the defensive and being a progressive or neo-Catholic is no refuge from the march of modern secularism. Their tenuous attachment to the Church will be finally severed when liberalism totally engulfs them and their new catechism will then indelibly proclaim: Liberty, Egality, Fraternity! The intellectual establishment of France will react against anything that threatens their Revolution!
Didn't the pope give a speech in just the past couple weeks extolling precisely these 3 values of the French Revolution? Looks like the "new catechims" is already here.
Is this it?
http://romanliturgy.net/ad_altare_dei.html
Here's a perhaps bizarre thought that occurred to me recently after viewing The Messenger: Supposedly there was a prophecy that France would be saved by a "maid from Lorraine." In one instance, that maid proved to by St. Jeanne d'Arc, ultimately murdered by the English.
But what if a second maid of Lorraine had been pre-emptively murdered? Recall, the male line of the house of Habsburg had died out with the death of Kaiser Karl VI. After Archduchess Maria Theresia married Prince Francis of Lothringia, the line is more properly called Habsburg-Lorraine.
The evil perpetrated by the French revolutionaries may have been far more than merely political and cultural.
I looked at the link you provided. This group definitely represents the Good Guys, and is explicitly opposed to the spirit of the French Revolution and, thus, the founding principles of the current secularist republic. The symbol of the Sacred Heart that the group uses is the exact same as used by the Vendée counter-revolutionaries.
No wonder the government hates them.
Is it the same group? I don't speak French so I couldn't determine whether they are or not. Perhaps they are a splinter group off another order?
Scroll down the page. The site has English pages. Click on the "Independent Clergy" link. It would seem that this group is....*cough*......"independent" of Rome.
Yes I saw that.
Well great find in any case. Looks like there will be some interesting reading there. I don't know enough French geography to say if Toulon would be in the same region as Le Vendee.
In the 7 years I lived in the Arlington and Richmond diocese, I never once saw a priest who wore a cassock that wasn't an SSPX or FSSP priest.
Not very many, certainly far from the majority, but more than zero.
Just a data point that those who spend all their time in SSPX-land will miss. The 'traditionalist" press is highly unlikely to mention it.
You're welcome.
They can't be moving many these days.
"They can't be moving many these days."
Would you like one for Christmas?
No. Our diocese encourages deacons to wear ties, rather than Roman collars, to keep the offices of diaconate and priesthood distinct.
I was trying to be humorous. I do not expect Louis XIV to be canonized.
At least Spain still has a monarchy, thanks to Franco. And I suspect there will be a backlash against Zapatero. He is going too far with his anti-Catholic agenda even for some of those who voted for him.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.