The French Government of Francois Hollande is declaring a silent War on Catholics as it brings in more and more anti-Catholic legislations. (H/T to Eponymous Flower)
On Sunday, tens of thousands of French Catholics took to the streets in Paris and Lyon to demonstrate their strong disagreement with the equality of same-sex partnerships and in support of their view of traditional marriage and family values. Conservatives from all over France participated. Here are photos from Salon Beige, courtesy of Tiberge.
The mass demonstrations, typically ignored by the rest of the international media, attracted the attention of the French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, who compared the Catholics well represented in the demonstrations, with “Muslim fundamentalists”!! His words were reported in the Tablet – (where else would he get such an anti-Catholic hearing in the Catholic Press?)
If I had my way I would like to say to Mr. Valls something like:
“This reminds you of “Muslim fundamentalism”? Er, sorry Minister, no guns, bombs or blood-letting here; simply tens of thousands of pacific Catholics (most likely representing millions of others who were unable to take part in the march) who value their country’s ancient Faith and everything it stands for and which you seem to have forgotten brought Europe out of the Dark Ages. They (we) do not wish to see it trampled into the dust as you so clearly would like.”
May God Bless France [a.k.a. “Eldest Daughter of the Church”] in her struggle against the forces of Evil. St. Joan of Arc – Pray for us.
Update (5th Feb.): VICTORY! France’s Socialist government have dropped plans to change family law for this year after the huge weekend protests.
Catholicism Pure & Simple 
Ooh La La!
50 million Frenchmen can’t be wrong.
San fairy ann.
Chacun a son goût,
(That’s enough Frog clichés for one matin, Toad!)
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Forgive Toad’s childish facetiousness, above. More serious matters here:
“The mass demonstrations, typically ignored by the rest of the international media,”
If the international media did indeed ignore the demos – they have their reasons.
I can only presume they do not consider them of sufficient interest to be worth covering. This may be correct on their part, or it may not. If it’s the latter, then they are foolishly ignoring a good story which might help their flagging circulations, so shooting themselves in the foot.
I don’t know which from here.
“… attracted the attention of the French Interior Minister, Manuel Valls, who compared the Catholics well represented in the demonstrations, with “Muslim fundamentalists”!! His words were reported in the Tablet – (where else would he get such an anti-Catholic hearing in the Catholic Press?)”
What is the point being made here? Is The Tablet being praised for running the story – or excoriated for aiding in the broadcasting of anti-Catholicism?
What should the Tablet have done? Run it or not?
What should the international media have done?
Run the pro-Catholic stuff, and censor the anti-Catholic part?
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Goodness, you’re right, Toad, if only the protesters had thought to bring along some ladies in a state of undress, then it would have been “…of sufficient interest to be worth covering”*.
*pun and double entendre
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@ Toad
The Tablet is a notoriously modernist Catholic newspaper (i.e. unorthodox in the honest opinion of many Catholics), and the proof of this is the way it takes every opportunity to bash every sniff of demonstrations of faithfulness to the Pope and Magisterium. Fr. Z has amusingly given the paper the now popular name of ‘The Bitter Pill‘ (a play on its name) to underline its constant stabbing in the back of the Faith it pretends to profess.
A perfect example of this is its airing of the views of the anti-Catholic Interior Minister of France, Mr. Manuel Valls, with no balanced views of the orthodox Catholics taking part in defending traditional marriage. Valls’ snide description of the demonstrators goes unchallenged, leaving it to the readers to believe that this is indeed what they are – a whole lot of fanatical ultra Conservatives, nothing more – a complete lie.
With your experience in journalism, you will recognise this is biased reporting – ce n’est pas?
BTW, I’m afraid the link to the newspaper in question does not seem to work, but it can be googled, and Eponymous Flower quotes from some of the article: http://eponymousflower.blogspot.com.es/2014/02/mass-demonstrations-in-france-against.html
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Oh well. We must pray for protester and legislator.
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Thank you for posting this – as you say, this sort of thing is regularly ignored by the mass media, whereas there is a disproportionate amount of coverage given to pro same-sex marriage arguments, etc.
It really grieves me whenever I think of that title ‘Eldest Daughter of the Church’ and also that England was once known as ‘Our Lady’s Dowry’ or the ‘Dowry of Mary’ – two countries that were so faithful and so devout, are now (for different reasons) two of the most secularised in the world.
It is good to know that there are still a significant minority who are ready to stand up for the truth though – even if, as in the UK, the (by far) largest response (approx. 600,000 people) to a sham public consultation on same-sex marriage was completely ignored by the government, who had already decided to push it through. You’d think an act of social change (or, as I see it, social engineering) on this scale would have come from a large groundswell of public support, but no – it was completely top-down. But then, this has happened in England ever since the Reformation, which was itself something imposed on the people.
God bless those faithful French Catholics!
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Raven is sadly correct, as so often. However, the penchant for “exposees” is the fault of the public, rather than the panderers. Bills have to be paid.
“With your experience in journalism, you will recognise this is biased reporting – ce n’est pas?” Indeed it is, Katheen, because – as I’ve pointed out several hundred times before – all reporting is biased in some way, as it is done by humans and not (so far) by robots. And humans have biases. Even Catholics, at times.
So, when we get to robot reporters, we will have to programme them with whichever bias we require, won’t we? Or they’ll just be reporting any old thing.
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What I was trying to say Toad, was that the whole multitudinous demonstration was not even considered news by the secular media!!
Then surely – biases apart – in objective reporting* both sides of the question being disputed should be given to the public, shouldn’t they?
This above example of the Tablet’s reporting lets the Minister’s opinion go unchallenged – without giving the other side (the ones taking part in the demonstration) an opportunity to voice their views.
Yes, perhaps the Tablet is biased…. but not biased in favour of the Catholics it would seem. It doesn’t even appear to be neutral! Shame on it.
* ‘objective reporting’ – does such a thing exist any longer?
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You raise a very interesting point, I think, Kathleen – if The Tablet* is as big a pill as you say (…and I have no idea, but gladly accept your assertion) who on earth is buying it?
How does it survive? Maybe an explanatory piece on CP&S?
As I sort of said before – if Le Demo wasn’t covered at all, those making the decisions must believe nobody much is interested in its news value.
I agree I don’t know why this should be. It would seem, on the face of it – to be a decent enough story – quite a good one, in fact – substantial crowd, interesting topic, etc.
However, GC’s preposterous implication – that Catholic ladies should appear topless in order to inflame The Loony Media into publishing action – should be very firmly resisted. Such is my unbiased, ‘professional,’ advice.
These “stunts” – although appearing reasonable enough on the surface, as it were – can swiftly backfire.
“* objective reporting – does such a thing exist any longer?” Nope. Never did.
*Keep taking the tabloids. Some hope.
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@ Big Dave
There is no need to be “irritated“!
As you can see from his blog, Mike Kenny (who is of course a “he”) was referring to England; it was not a slip of the pen. It seems that the profound devotion to Our Blessed Lady goes back at least to the Anglo Saxons, (IOW even before the Norman invasion) although the love and devotion of the people of England to Mary continued well after the Norman conquest.
Naturally this is not to say that other countries (like the beautiful Emerald Isle 😉 ) do not also have a special love for Our Heavenly Queen and Mother!
Here is a great website that I just discovered (thanks to your question that set me googling) which gives some of the history of England’s ‘love story’ with Our Lady.
http://www.acatholicland.org/england-mary-s-dowry/
It really does bring back with heart-wrenching force all that was lost at the Reformation under Henry VIII and co.
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No, no Toad… it is Dave who is BIG ^^ and the Tablet that is ‘bitter’. 😆 Please do clean up your specs!
(No offense meant Big Dave, just wrangling with Toad as usual.)
Who buys the Tablet? I’ve no idea; none of my family and friends, for sure. Presumably some types who think ‘tradition‘ and ‘orthodoxy‘ are dirty words might find it to their liking.
That does not include your chums on CP&S, needless to say!
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I have just heard that there is Victory for the tens and thousands of people (mostly Catholics) who took part in the weekend manifestations in Paris and Lyon. Hurrah! Great rejoicing in France at this news. Francois Hollande’s Socialist Governments’ plans to lay aside (at least for the time being) their plans to destroy the Traditional Family given the strong opposition shown. I have updated the post accordingly. (Unfortunately the link is an Italian one, but the message is clear.)
It just goes to show that these sort of pacific demonstrations – like the recent ‘March For Life’ in the US – do bring good results a lot of the time. Deo gratias.
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The truth of the matter is that England was once known as “Mary’s Dowry” and English folklore is littered with hidden references to Our Lady.
And many Englishmen (including my own ancestors) suffered and died for the true Faith, here in England.
I am somewhat conflicted by the whole Anglo-Irish struggle because, like most of the “lower orders” in Northern England, my ancestry is fairly evenly divided between England and Catholic Ireland.
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“Presumably some types who think ‘tradition‘ and ‘orthodoxy‘ are dirty words might find (The Tablet) to their liking.”
Fair enough, Kathleen.
Whenever I read the word, “tradition,” I’m reminded of the crusty old Admiral who protested that something Churchill, as First Lord of the Admiralty wanted to change – was, “Against the traditions of The Navy.”
“The traditions of the Navy – Sir – are rum, sodomy and the lash,” replied Churchill.
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Thank you Kathleen for clarifying – I was indeed referring to England being known as Our Lady’s Dowry, and the particular effects of the Reformation in England, as it was a much more complicated situation than in (for example) the Reformation in Scotland.
However, I do apologise for not making it clearer that I was describing separately the particular case of England’s devotion prior to the Reformation, and the degree of secularisation now seen in the UK as a whole. Perhaps it would have been wiser to mention England only, especially as the marriage laws are being dealt with separately in different parts of the UK. Sorry for any confusion and/or offence. At any rate, I think we can agree that the Protestantisation of the UK as a whole was a great tragedy, the full effects of which are being seen now.
P.S. Great news about the French governments change of mind though – thanks for the update!
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No need to apologise Mike – I’m sure your first comment was clear to everyone else. 😉
You are a great commenter IMHO, always giving a very Catholic view on things, with many interesting anecdotes.
Anyway, just as we are celebrating victory for France we receive the dismaying news that Scotland has approved the abomination of same-sex “marriage”.
http://www.catholicculture.org/news/headlines/index.cfm?storyid=20413
Only Northern Ireland of the UK countries staunchly holds out on this now.
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Thank you for your kind comments! 🙂
Yes, unfortunately the approval of same-sex unions in Scotland was pretty much a foregone conclusion, just as it was in England and Wales. Again, there was a ‘public consultation’, but it was made clear that this was only to consult on how the changes in law would be implemented, not whether they should be in the first place. Some qualifications have made, saying that no person or organisation will be forced to ‘marry’ same-sex couples, but just as in England and Wales, they have not actually shown how they will be able to stop people bringing cases against churches/ministers/priests to the European Court of Human Rights, which has now endorsed the Lunacek Report as well!
Furthermore, I can see several teachers of good conscience losing their jobs in the future, when they are told that they have to teach impressionable children not only that same-sex relationships are equivalent to heterosexual marriage, but also teach the mechanics of such relationships. And people still claim that the slippery-slope argument doesn’t hold up to scrutiny!
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