Europe is often told that it is now residing in a Post Christian epoch, yet this haughty assertion misses the fact that apostasy and irrelevance are do not share the same definition.
Though many Europeans have left the faith, the most striking news stories from the past decade have involved some element of religiosity, for good or for ill.
Some of the most horrific of these have come from France. Starting with the Charlie Hebdo attacks, the sectarian violence within France has grown increasingly vicious and debased. There was the massacre at the Bataclan, with gruesome stories of people being disembowled and dragged around the theatre during the mass murder which took the lives of 90 people, along with 40 others at other locations on the same night in Paris. The following summer saw the Nice attacks, where a Muslim killed 86 people with a truck, badly injuring 434 others. One of the most haunting images of that attack was the covering of a small child, her little teddy bear placed beside her lifeless body. International media ordered an embargo on the image, fearing reprisals for their role in facilitating the attack through the advocating of the destabilisation of Libya and Syria.
That same summer, Father Jacques Hamel was beheaded as he said Mass in Normandy. His killers expected fear, but they met resistance from a nun who told them that she had nothing to fear, since Jesus loved her. Before his death, Fr. Hamel told them ‘Get Behind Me Satan’.
These events occurred before Emmanuel Macron became French President in 2017, but he was aware that these were serious nonetheless and that they needed to be dealt with, or at least to be given the appearance of being dealt with.
He instituted some half hearted reforms that expanded the powers of police, offering France’s fractured policing service the powers to search houses and to shut down Mosques if needed.
However, that sort of policy works fine in normal times, but not in these extraordinary times. As a Globalist, Macron does not believe that the French people are particularly unique and that they are easily interchangeable with large numbers from other nations. Taking a cue from arch Euro Globalist Angela Merkel, Macron was amongst those who seized upon the so called ‘Migrant Crisis’ as a means of stuffing his country with reserves of cheap labour to cover for shortfalls in birth rates.
The results have been catastrophic.
His beloved Lampedusa provided the Islamic Terrorist who beheaded two Catholics and murdered another at Mass in Nice a number of months ago. The killer had arrived without being checked, with the clear intention of carrying out an attack.
There was also the refugee who had been hired by locals to work in Nantes Cathedral, as a thank you to those who hired him he decided to set the church on fire. Mainstream media denied that a refugee was responsible for days then buried the story when it became apparent that he was in fact one.
Who then should Catholics vote for?
These past few weeks, the world’s media engaged in much hand wringing regarding news that Marine Le Pen had gained the lead of Macron in the latest polls for the 2022 Presidential Election. Le Pen is no saviour, but she offers an opportunity to lessen the chances of Catholics being decapitated as they attend Mass.
Le Pen also has the opportunity to serve as something of an example to the rest of Europe, to show them that just as they overcame Communism with the fall of the Berlin Wall, so too can they overcome Globalism. With Macron’s idol, Angela Merkel, now on her way out after a decade of destruction across Europe, Macron is hoping to become the de facto Globalist leader on the continent. Merkel has presided over a migrant crisis, the spread of terrorism and brutal austerity that crippled countries like Ireland and reduced its birth rate by 25%. Her departure could have come sooner, but it is still better late than never.
Spooked by these poll numbers, Macron has responded by claiming to go after ‘Woke’ influences on French campuses, citing American Race theory as ‘toxic’ in its influence.
In a debate with Le Pen this week, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin criticised her as being soft on Islam, suggesting that Macron’s approaches were far more strict and far more effective.
“There is a share of France’s women who wear a headscarf, and they do it freely,” Darmanin said. “Then there are women who are subjugated by their husband, by their father, by their brother, by their community, and these ones need to be protected. It’s better to fight the men who are creating the community pressure’’.
Le Pen responded by stating that all religions shouldn’t have to suffer for the crimes of the few, as she says that Macron was using this to crackdown on Catholic Traditionalists homeschooling their children and on moderate Muslims.
Nevertheless, regardless of the alternatives, Macron seems to be the worst of options for Christians from the experience of the last few years. A reelection for him would mean more fires like those at Notre Dame, more priests being beheaded and more targeting of things like homeschooling. The challenge for serious French Catholics now is to convince nominal and moderate Catholics to break their abusive relationship with the Republic that sees them as being no different from the Jihadists. It has been their struggle for over 200 years now, but now the time is fast approaching when they must make a push for success. It is not just Macron of course, the ruling LREM party are also discriminating against Catholics, also equating them with Islamists. Nonetheless, to the rest of Europe and to the sleeping giant of Catholicism on the continent, defeat for Macron might at least represent a symbolic key towards resurgence.
Anti immigration is not the same as Catholicism, the secularists like Le Pen only oppose migration because they do not want France to change in their lifetime, they have little plans that can outdo its aversion to having its own children and practicing the Catholic faith. There is also the question of Le Pen’s massive support of LGBT voters, many of them simply oppose Islam and feel threatened by it. Fear is not an ideal upon which to rebuild a once great nation.
Although Le Pen may buy France some time from fulfilling the worst premonitions of Jean Raspail and Michel Houellebecq, it is only a matter of time before the Republic succumbs to Islam, unless the eldest daughter of the church returns home.