France Archives - Page 2 of 21

France

French Bishops’ Conference backs Fiducia Supplicans and its ‘generosity’

January 11, 2024

ROME – Days after nine French prelates announced they would not authorise to blessings to same-sex couples as requested by the recent Vatican declaration Fiducia Supplicans, the Permanent Council of the French Bishops’ Conference has said instead that such blessings should be given as a sign of “unconditional and merciful welcome”. In a statement dated 10

French politics is suffocating the Spirit of Christmas

December 24, 2023

Emmanuel Macron found himself in a spot of bother earlier in December when he invited France’s chief rabbi to the Elysee Palace to light the candles that marked the start of the Jewish festival of lights. Cue outrage in some quarters, mainly of the political sort, from men and women who accused the president of

Exclusive Interview: author and historian Adam Zamoyski on Napoleon Bonaparte, the Enlightenment, the Catholic Church and Poland

December 14, 2023

Adam Zamoyski is a British historian of Polish origin. He has written numerous highly acclaimed books, including Poland: A History, and Holy Madness: Romantics, Patriots and Revolutionaries, 1776-1871. He is also an expert on Napoleon, having written the 2019 biography Napoleon: The Man Behind the Myth, 1812: Napoleon’s Fatal March on Moscow and its sequel, Rites of Peace.

Pope Francis is well-intentioned but misguided when he talks about migrants

September 25, 2023

Last week president Emmanuel Macron hosted two prestigious figures to France and one proved more problematical than the other. King Charles’s State visit was a success, the perfect mix of pomp and ceremony and casual walkabouts. The British monarchy avoided controversy when he addressed the French senate, merely referring to the “existential challenge” of climate

Liberty, Equality, Fraternity: The return of the school uniform in France

September 04, 2023

In 2017 Saint-Jean de Passy, a private school in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, introduced what it called a “practical, modern and sober” uniform for all its pupils. On its website, the school explains that it took the decision because “we are living in an age where the competition of appearance all too often take

The rampant anti-Catholicism of the French Left

August 30, 2023

On the morning of 8 June this year, Henri d’Anselme heard a commotion in an Annecy playground. The 24-year-old Frenchman then saw something horrific: a man with a knife stabbing babies and toddlers in front of their hysterical mothers. D’Anselme did what we all like to imagine we would have done in similar circumstances: he

Number of adult baptisms in France rises again this year as crucifixes are erected across countryside

April 14, 2023

There was significant rise in the number of baptisms at this year’s Easter vigil in France, according to figures published before the Easter Triduum by the French National Service for Catechesis and Catechumenate. This year at the Easter vigil, 5,463 adults received the sacrament of baptism across France, a 21 per cent rise on the

Pro-life group criticizes Macron’s call to add abortion to rights charter

January 21, 2022

A pro-life group in France has denounced President Emmanuel Macron’s call to add abortion to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. “Advocating for the inclusion of a ‘right to abortion’ in the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union ignores the violence that abortion often inflicts on many women,” Alliance VITA said in a statement on