In France, we are “confined” like many others, because of the Covid-19 epidemic. But President Macron announced a probable gradual deconfinement from May 11. Deo gratias!
However, it seems that this deconfinement does not concern our spiritual needs. After a meeting with “religious authorities” (ie not only Catholic bishops or other Christian leaders, but also Jewish, Muslim and even Masonic representatives – as if all religions (or non-religions) had the same kind of liturgy or worship! -), we learned that the government planned not to reopen the churches for public worship before the month of June.
Clearly, the French government has a problem with religious freedom.
We are certainly no longer in 1790 or 1905, when the government robbed Church properties by violence. But secularism remains a serious shortcoming of our leaders. Emmanuel Macron declared to the bishops of France, on April 9, 2018, to “always respect absolutely and without compromise any laws of the Republic” – what he defined as secularism, “a rule of brazen for our life together which does not suffer any compromise”. So, in the name of secularism, we would not be allowed to oppose abortion or gay “marriage”? Strange conception of religious freedom!
But back to our confinement. First, it was falsely claimed that the epidemic had spread in Alsace because of an evangelical gathering – which, however, had respected the health rules then in force. Then, several Christians were fined for having attended masses, while respecting the instructions of the government. And, quite recently, a priest who was celebrating alone in his church, in front of a camera filming mass for his parishioners, was interrupted by three armed police officers.
It is all the more shocking since, during this time, some suburbs abandoned to sharia law and thugs, never respected confinement – and even on several occasions insulted the police and spat on them.
And so we learn now that the Christian churches would not reopen before mid-June, more than a month after the deconfinement. A friend told me that he had heard a majority MP explaining that churches, like pubs, were not essential for the country. But, of course, yes, our spiritual needs are no less important than our material needs! Or are we animals, unable of any spiritual elevation?
We launched a petition to the Prime Minister with Le Salon beige to ask that our spiritual needs and our religious freedom be finally taken into account. And you, dear readers, if you can spread it and spread this article around you, I am hopeful that popular pressure coupled with international pressure will make the government yield!