Is Europe Christian? By Olivier Roy Hurst, 112pp, £14.99/$19.99 Everything seems to be about identity these days: politics, culture – even religion. Some of this is directed at persuading people that they should support a particular view simply because they belong to a particular group. In other cases, reflection on identity issues is a way

In recent years some of the most contentious debates in France have concerned what are conventionally called “social issues”. Changes to France’s marriage laws in 2013 produced mass opposition from across the political spectrum. This year, l’affaire Vincent Lambert sparked heated debate about whether the government was trying to legalise euthanasia by stealth. It’s in this

It’s escaped most of the world’s attention, but France has been fixated in recent months on the case of Vincent Lambert a 42-year-old brain-damaged man who died on July 11 as a result of being starved and dehydrated to death. L’affaire Vincent Lambert has been marked by public protests against the successful effort to deny

The Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, is renowned for his calm demeanor and easy-going manner. That made it all the more significant when, during a recent radio interview following President Emmanuel Macron’s address to the nation about the burning of Notre-Dame Cathedral, Aupetit expressed his astonishment at Macron’s failure to mention Catholics as among those

The conviction of Lyon’s archbishop, Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, by a French court on March 7 for failing to report alleged sexual abuse by a priest of his archdiocese has further fuelled the sense that the Church faces one of its most serious crises since the Reformation. Barbarin is the first cardinal to be convicted by a

During the French Revolution’s worst years, some of the most visible expressions of violence involved attacks on the Church, which was perceived as a pillar of the ancien régime. Revolutionaries slaughtered numerous clergy and expelled thousands of others. They expropriated Church-owned property and occasionally ransacked and burnt churches. It was hard not to recall these

For three months, France has been swamped by protests from thousands of French citizens whose patience with their nation’s political establishment has snapped. Far from fading, the gilets jaunes have reduced France’s president Emmanuel Macron to engaging in televised listening sessions across the country. Such is the situation in which “Jupiter” – as he’s dubbed

Cardinal Sarah has given a vivid diagnosis of what ails the West Sometimes a family needs someone from the outside to tell it hard truths. That’s precisely what Cardinal Robert Sarah, the African-born prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, did last month in a Pentecost homily delivered to thousands of young Catholics who had