France wants to abolish Catholic lobby club
March from the conservative Roman Catholic movement Civitas. Photo Facebook, Civitas
Western Europe
The French Minister of Interior Affairs announced on Monday that the Catholic Civitas movement will be dissolved. Anti-Semitism is the drop that broke the camel's back.
The Civitas movement is linked to far-rightist traditionalists and also includes a political party, La Croix reports. It was established in 1999.
The reason for its dissolution are anti-Semitic remarks made at a gathering of the organisation, Le Figaro writes. Pierre Hillard, a controversial essayist, held a speech last month at the Civitas Institute in which he called for stricter immigration laws. "Before 1789, a Jew, a Muslim, or a Buddhist could not become French. For what? Because they were heretics", he said, adding that "the naturalisation of Jews in 1791 opened the door to immigration." He argued that "we should perhaps find the situation before 1789."
Violent
However, the incident was not the first controversy surrounding Civitas. The organisation is known for its actions against marriage-for-all and abortion, according to La Croix. Sometimes, these clashes even turned violent. During a protest against a reception centre for asylum seekers, the two vehicles of the mayor of the town were burned, for example.
The movement also attempted to get into politics in 2017. It described its party as "a political movement inspired by natural law and the social doctrine of the Catholic Church." Its goal was to "re-Christianise France." However, the party only received very few seats.
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