I read recently somewhere that France is one of the few countries where the State (government) or people are against religion. Is this true? How is Christianity/Catholicism viewed in France?
And what is the cause of so many church burnings in France?
The primary culprit is Muslims, however someone also mentioned that atheists or anarchists may also have something against Christianity? There has been over 2500 acts of vandalism in the past 4 years and there is a map by https://www.christianophobie.fr/ that documents this. Thank you for your help.
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“PARIS (AP) — An estimated 330,000 children were victims of sex abuse within France’s Catholic Church over the past 70 years, according to a major report released Thursday that is France’s first major reckoning with the devastating phenomenon.
The figure includes abuses committed by some 3,000 priests and other people involved in the church — wrongdoing that Catholic authorities covered up over decades in a “systemic manner,” according to the president of the commission that issued the report, Jean-Marc Sauvé”.
The vast majority of the french populace are Catholics. Although the government keeps on chanting seculariams , there is ZERO secularism because all the Christian holiday including Christmas and Easter….etc, are paid holidays in france. Although people do not seem to care that much about religions, but they still see themselves as Christians, Jews, muslims…etc even if they do do practise their religions. I read about more Canadian Catholics churches were burnt due to the mistreatment of the Aboriginal children than the French churches. **Burning a church anywhere worldwide is a serious crime of arson.**
The government is not against religion. Religion is just confined to private space and should not interfere with public affairs, including politics, public administrations and schools. The opposite is true, the French state doesn’t intervene in religious affairs (including no public funding for the church).
As for church burnings, the Notre Dame one was an accident. There was another one recently in Nantes but the arsonist was some Rwandan Christian guy. Haven’t heard of a fire started by Muslims. Haven’t heard of any other fire tbh.
>There has been over 2500 acts of vandalism in the past 4 years and there is a map by https://www.christianophobie.fr/ that documents this.
Well, that’s an easy one to explain. That thing is worldwide, not limited to France. There are stuff that happened in Haiti and Colorado in there.
Do you read French? because that website lists things like robberies and graffiti as acts of “christianophobia”, instead of, you know, petty theft and quotidian vandalism (if someone steals an ornament off a grave, or if a rebellious teenager writes “merde à celui qui le lit” on the side of a village church, it is part of this supposed persecution). Also, the list is worldwide, not just France.
Besides, where on earth did you read that the French state is anti-christian? most of our public holidays are from the catholic calendar (things like All Saints’ Day and the Assumption of the Virgin) and the president of the French republic is the canon of Saint John’s Basilica in Rome. It is supposed to be a secular state (separation of churches and state was enacted in 1905), but that most definitely does not mean it is anti-christian. Hell, the UK government has a more distant relationship to christian institutions, and anglicanism is their state religion (no such thing as a religious holiday in the UK though. Public holidays over there are when the banks are closed, when the queen has a birthday, or when they celebrate killing a catholic terrorist centuries ago. Well, I guess Christmas is an exception).
My point is, you are misinformed. Christianity (specificlly catholicism) is part of society in France. It isn’t as dominant as it was a couple of generations ago, but it is not being persecuted. You should find better sources of information.
First course of action, turn off Fox News. There isn’t any more church burning in France than there is in the US. In France, the arsonists typically fall under the mentality unstable and stupid teenagers category. Unlike what is currently happening in the US with black churches being targeted and burned down.
It seems like you didn’t even bother to read your source. The very first page lists 25 acts of vandalism, 12 are in France, 1 in Haiti, 8 in the US, 1 in the Republic of Congo, 1 in Ukraine, 2 in Canada.
Of those crimes committed in France, it includes really inconsequential acts such as tagging the doors, petty theft, verbal threat… hardly worrisome.
I think the source you cited it pure garbage and the author of that shitty site is targeting idiots with a prosecution complex.
Bless your little heart.