France: Catholic Church Prayer for Nation
August 6, 2012 12 Comments
The French Catholic Church will revive a centuries-old custom next week with an updated national “prayer for France” opposing the same-sex marriage and euthanasia reforms planned by the new Socialist government.
The prayer, to be read in all churches on Aug 15, echoes the defense of traditional marriage by Pope Benedict and Catholic leaders around the world as gay nuptials gain acceptance, especially in Europe and North America.
King Louis XIII decreed in 1638 that all churches would pray on Aug 15, the day Catholics believe the Virgin Mary was assumed bodily into Heaven, for the good of the country. The annual practice fell into disuse after World War Two.
In the text, Catholics will pray for newly elected officials “so that their sense of the common good will overcome special demands.” This would include support for traditional families “throughout their lives, especially in painful moments.”
Opposing gay adoption, it says children should “cease to be objects of the desires and conflicts of adults and fully benefit from the love of a father and a mother.”
The prayer is unusual for French bishops, who usually keep a low political profile. Church spokesman Monsignor Bernard Podvin said they wanted to “raise the consciousness of public opinion about grave social choices.”
Pope Benedict said in January that same-sex marriage threatened “the future of humanity itself.” In March, he denounced moves to legalize it in the United States, where President Barack Obama has since come out in its support.
Catholic Church leaders in England and Scotland have spoken out against gay marriage this year after Prime Minister David Cameron and the Scottish regional government both announced plans to legalize it.
FIRST PAGE OF THE BIBLE
Socialist President Francois Hollande pledged during the election campaign last spring to reform marriage laws and his government has said it would do so early next year. Opinion polls say about two-thirds of the French support gay marriage.
Defending the Church’s opposition, Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin said marriage was defined at the very start of the Bible as created by God to join man and woman.
“Nobody should be surprised that we Catholics think the first page of the Bible is right, even more so than a parliament,” he told Europe 1 radio.
The Roman Catholic Church, which has 1.3 billion members worldwide, teaches respect for individual gays and lesbians but condemns homosexual acts as sinful.
Hollande has also expressed sympathy for euthanasia, which is not allowed in France, and named a commission to review whether the current law stressing palliative care for the dying needed to be expanded.
Paris Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois discussed the issue with Hollande during their first official meeting in July. He did not oppose the review but said: “Just because one asks a question doesn’t mean one answers it positively.”
Same-sex marriage is legal in several European countries, including traditionally Catholic Spain and Portugal. It is also allowed in Canada as well as in six U.S. states and the District of Columbia.
Euthanasia is legal in the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Belgium. Switzerland and the U.S. state of Oregon allow assisted suicide.
About Fr Stephen Smuts
The Church Militant certainly is showing signs of revival in France, isn’t it? I pray for the French Catholics. They have a many-headed dragon to slay.
Time to invoke Blessed Virgin Mary under her old disgarded title of OUR LADY OF VICTORY! Different war, same Sarantic enemy.
I meant Satanic enemy!
Dunno. I don’t trust those Saranticists either!
When you decriminalise homosexual practice, how can you deny full civil rights to gay men and women?.Contraception and abortion are seeing France off as well. Why don’t the bishops include that?
From what I understand, some people with same-sex attraction understand that their condition is not normal. (Statistically, it isn’t; an exception doesn’t make the norm) This is why it is possible for gay men and women to be faithful Catholics. These men and women have the choice to live chastely and to make a sacrifice for a greater glory. Unfortunately, a “homosexual agenda” has been established by the Left, the same sort of forces that politicize women’s rights, race/ethnicity, and all sorts of things that divide people and make them critical of the mainstream/establishment/status quo. This, with the help of liberal media in the form of the entertainment industry, television, etc. has caused the normalization of not only homosexual acts and lifestyles, but of sexual sins in general.
(Let’s also add the fact that the term “homosexual” and sexual identity politics did not exist prior to the advent or liberalism and cultural Marxism in the West. One can tell how contrived this sexual identity politics is when one examines pre-industrialized and primitive cultures and even attitudes about sexuality and gender during antiquity.)
In the United States, attempts by the homosexuals and their sympathizers (Including Obama) to equate their demand for their “homosexual marriage”, with the struggles of black Americans during the Civil Rights Movement, has caused rightful outrage from the conservative black community. “Do not equate my skin with your sin.” so they say.
I definitely understand the sentiment of the black community though; The point of the Civil Rights Movement is that Americans of African descent are also Americans who strive to be lawful, speak the same language, and worship the same God, pay taxes, and even bleed and die for their country- they are normal, ordinary Americans. Why can’t they be protected and treated equally by the laws of the land or have the same opportunities available to them? Whereas the homosexual agenda rubs it in everyone’s faces that they are different, that they are special, that they take pride in being different, that everyone who disagrees with their lifestyle is an ignorant, hateful bigot (Check how Chick-fil-A is treated) and so forth. It’s like the illegal Mexican immigrant, or at least their brainwashed, liberalized children, who, while proudly waving the Mexican flag on American soil and believing parts of the United States belong to Mexico, demands that he be treated like an American and be protected by American laws and be treated the same. No doubt, those who disagree with him will be labeled as an ignorant, hateful, bigoted racist. (It’s a staple of the left to call decent people names in the name of political correctness to shut them up. It doesn’t work on people who don’t really care.)
As for abortion and contraception- I have no idea what the French Bishops are thinking or what they plan to do. But we all know that while the birthrate of Europeans are dwindling, immigrant families are blooming. It is more disconcerting that in France alone, Islam is poised to overtake Christendom due to the strong cultural and religious identity of Muslim families that are apparently larger (Maybe due to polygamy being allowed in Islam?) and have better familial relations.
This decline in demographics is due to a culture of death, courtesy of the godless socialist/communist/marxist/etc. who sincerely think they’re doing mankind a favor by contradicting God’s Will. It’s worse enough that Europeans are committing genocide against themselves by contracepting and aborting themselves out of existence, they, and the liberal West in general, have the GALL to spread their filth into places like Africa, and other developing nations. (Nations that look up to the West as a model to emulate.)
It’s not just a French issue, but a Catholic issue as a whole. And this bold action by these good French bishops is something that many in the U.S. can learn from. Especially in how there seems to be an outbreak of schizophrenia in the U.S. Conference of Bishops.
@ Ioannes
You wrote: ” It is more disconcerting that in France alone, Islam is poised to overtake Christendom due to the strong cultural and religious identity of Muslim families that are apparently larger (Maybe due to polygamy being allowed in Islam?) and have better familial relations.”
I’m not convinced that there is statistical backing for your assertion. French law prohibits questions on religion on its census form, so one has to rely on surveys and the best one has for those who self-identify as Catholics, is that the figure is between 55-85% of the total population
I agree, however that if one looks at the French Conferences of Catholic Bishops web-site FCCB Statistics what is shown is a decline in Catholic religious observance.
As for Muslims, see this article: Try this How does France count its Muslim population?. Only 5-6 millons of the population are 1st or 2nd generation immigrants from countries where Islam is the dominant religion (5-6% of the population) and of those about 2 million are practising believers (3% of the population).
First generation immigrant families do tend to be larger, but by the 2nd generation the number of chilldren born to families of immigrant descent tends to mirror that of the rest of the population – BTW that’s true for the UK too.
As for your comments on matters Mexican: “Pobre México. Tan lejos de Dios, tan cerca de los Estados Unidos,”
@ Mr. Mourad
Let’s hope I’m wrong. I was thinking more on the health of the traditional family unit when I wrote that part in my comment. I’m not so much worried about the spread of Islam, as much as I am worried about the Culture of Death as it manifests itself in abortion, contraception, homosexual marriage, etc.
Though I would also be vigilant of letting Islam become a dominant force in any country. I shudder- SHUDDER to think of what will happen to Christians once they become dhimmis even in so-called “progressive” or “moderate” Islamic states like Turkey or Egypt. (Ask the remaining native Greek inhabitants of Constantinople, of the fate of the seminary of Halki or ask the Copts of how many kidnapped and forcefully converted children and women the “Religion of Peace” victimized this year.)
What we can learn from them is the strong Catholic Identity we ought to have, and for our leaders to have steel backbones to stand up to secularism while we ourselves pray for our the courage to stand united in Christ with our priests and bishops. That’s most likely the only way. If we are too loose, we may be merely overwhelmed by the dominant secular culture and we will have lost the idea of who we really are as Catholics.
Please pray also for Tasmania – our Premier has just announced she will legislate for this pretended form of marriage here too. The Labor-Green coalition that is in power will certainly pass it through the House of Assembly, so our hope is that the Legislative Council will block it.
I remember Lichtenstein has been faced with these sorts of issues before. Thank God for a good Catholic prince for his constancy to the faith!
Gott erhalte Alois, den mutigen Prinz!
Contraception is not just a socialist innovation, its fully supported by the right wing too. The Britsih Conservative leader is supporting gay marriage. I still think it will be impossible to stop civil gay marraige, but we should build in clauses that respect churches and other faith communities from having to comply. By the way contraception is now starting to reduce the North African birth rate.That Spain and Italy ( excluding immigrant communities) have the lowest birth rate on earth is a shocking inditement of the local churches.
And if the secular authorities and their supporters just laugh and mock our sincere attempts to have the government and everyone respect the principles of Catholic teaching? (Because, you know, all religions are “equal” according to the culture now.) And force the churches under penalty to treat gay “marriage” the same in the churches as done in secular settings? Or even penalize churches for refusing to play along with the charade that homosexuality is “normal” and that a “normal family” can result from such a thing? (talking about Catholic orphanages and adoption and so forth)
I suspect then it would be Guy Fawkes time.