On November 30, on the Catholic Renaissance web site, Jean-Pierre Maugendre supported the Figaro article in an open letter to Bishop Aupetit. This letter was the third one.
Within the first, J.-P. Maugendre reminded the Archbishop of Paris: “There’s loads of speak about not disuniting the Christian neighborhood. Laudable intention! Nonetheless, this seek for unity can’t be achieved in unconditional submission to political authorities. It have to be carried out in charity which is the love of God.”
And a little bit increased: “Fairly frankly, you give many trustworthy the painful impression of being solely, pardon my expression, “the little telegraph operator” of Mr. Darmanin [Minister of the Interior and Religious Affairs—Editor’s note], in a servile obedience to political authorities which is, sadly, not new.
“The custom is outdated. So it was, on the time of the legal guidelines of separation of Church and State, that Mgr. Turinaz, Bishop of Nancy, castigated “Catholics who’re dominated and blinded by a double ardour, the eagerness for servitude in the direction of the State and keenness for perpetual and common concessions.”
Within the second open letter to Mgr. Aupetit, J.-P. Maugendre wrote: “Your phrases appear to attribute to the present political authorities excessive marks within the service of the frequent good which might solely be a shock.”
“The continued promotion of abortion, the legalization of unnatural unions, the common assaults on the rights of oldsters to lift their kids in line with their religion and beliefs, the questioning of the liberty to maneuver and work, and so forth. All of those measures don’t argue in favor of accepting, with out evaluation, the selections of an authority that may ordinarily be dedicated to the frequent good.”
“The worship of God is of no significance for governments who would undoubtedly deserve the reproach of Saint Paul: ‘whose God is their stomach’ (Phil 3:19), however the concept this topic may seem as minor to Catholics is past comprehension.
“You promised in the course of the first confinement to ‘bark very loudly’ within the occasion of an infringement of spiritual freedom. Is that this not the time to obey the phrases of the Psalmist: ‘I’ll converse of your prescriptions earlier than kings and won’t be ashamed of them’ (Ps. 118:46)?”
On this governmental materialism, little or under no circumstances denounced by the native ecclesiastical hierarchy, Bishop Schneider additionally stated within the interview of November 24, already cited: “It’s the expression of a extremely developed materialism. From this standpoint, solely the wants of the physique and different temporal values are thought of to be of significant significance. Nonetheless, the soul is extra vital than the physique, everlasting life is extra vital than temporal life.”
“We overlook this vital divine educating of Our Lord who stated: ‘Not in bread alone doth man stay, however in each phrase that proceedeth from the mouth of God,’(Mt. 4:4) and ‘For what doth it revenue a person, if he achieve the entire world, and undergo the lack of his personal soul?’ (Mt. 16:26).”
“It’s with remorse and astonishment that we observe that the heresy of materialism and naturalism has already penetrated so deeply into the ideas and actions of many Catholics and even many clergymen and bishops. The Church should restore the primacy of soul and of everlasting life.”
A Suicidal Alignment
The evaluation of an ecclesiastical alignment on secular dogma was made, on the L’Incorrect web site on November 12, by the thinker Thibaud Collin: “This sanitary suppression of public worship can also be a chance for a lot of trustworthy to comprehend to what extent up to date Catholicism has ended up internalizing republican secularism for which worship is reducible to particular person convictions and, as such, can not compete with political regulation transcending them.”
Nonetheless, easy demographic causes ought to spur the bishops of France “to return out of a quasi-bankrupt posture with the State,” in line with sociologist Yann Raison du Cleuziou within the November 17 situation of Marianne: “The variety of training Catholics continues to fall! Only one.8% of the French inhabitants [aged 18 and over, Editor’s Note] practices the Catholic faith weekly.
The profile of training Catholics is recomposed on those that stay, and tendentially probably the most conservative are those that finest transmit the religion of their households. The bishops can not ignore the youth who’ve come from it and who’re fairly lively and uninhibited.
This conservative wing has an bizarre recourse to the road, and, certainly, this has been noticed for ten years as seen within the demonstrations towards Christianophobia in 2012, the “Manif pour tous” demonstrations towards redefining marriage in 2013, or the current demonstrations on the bioethics regulation.”
Within the November 25 La Croix, Y. Raison du Cleuziou was much more specific: “In an establishment just like the Church, the contempt displayed for its final practitioners is suicidal.”
