French Catholicism has hit the headlines in many different ways over the past number of weeks.
There has been the scandal involving the Archbishop of Paris who has now resigned, there has been the proposed wreckovation of Notre Dame and there was also the protest against a secular concert at a church in Nantes.
Now, a far more sinister story has emerged from Nanterre.
A number of Catholics were attending a Marian Procession in the town when a large group of Muslim men attacked them.
The Muslims shut down the event, screaming ‘THIS IS THE LAND OF ALLAH, ON THE QURAN I WILL SLIT YOUR THROAT!’ echoing the recent martyrdom of Father Jacques Hamyl in Normandy in 2016 and three Catholics in Nice last year.
The details of the attack were released in a Twitter thread belonging to an account which has since been deleted, apparently due to threats.
Twitter user Nicolas Phillippe wrote:
Today we celebrated the immaculate conception in our parish of Fontenelles in Nanterre. For the occasion, a short procession of 1km is organized in the evening with the statue of the blessed virgin as well as songs to the virgin
After only a hundred meters, for our first stop, we began to be insulted by passers-by. Then several young men began to surround us, in total a big dozen, who sneered while insulting us
Then sneers followed increasingly violent insults "children of whores", "gang of whores",then increasingly Christiannophobic words "here is not a cathedral", "you are khouffars of disbelievers", "break you are not at home"
Faced with the hostility of these young people, it was decided to continue the procession route. There, they get closer to us, the insults become more and more violent, and it spits on the ground in our direction.
The father is attacked first being at the head of the procession. He gets spat on, then thrown cold water. The tension rises, and the group that surrounded us comes into contact. "wallah on the Qur'an I'm going to slit your throat."
The father explains that it is a procession dedicated to the virgin. Nothing to do, "this is the land of Allah, break yourself". Other words are spoken in Arabic, while several parishioners are violently jostled by these young
We were followed and insulted for almost the entire duration of the procession, under infamous words, which were covered by songs to the virgin. In the end, calm only returned when we returned to the Church, where a police patrol was waiting for us because alerted
No one was injured, but the parishioners were shocked by this inexplicable violence towards a simple procession that was done in a good mood, authorized in the prefecture and on a classic course. The hatred in their eyes was there, without being able to explain it.
Honestly, the climate is very heavy, and it is more and more complicated, even dangerous, to be a Christian in certain territories. I am not trying to take pity only to explain the verbal and physical violence that Christians in France face
Most of the shocking details were confirmed today by the diocese’s social media:
A Marian procession took place at Hauts de Seine prefecture
During this march were planned two stops. During the first stop the procession was taken to task by several people who uttered insults and coarse and violent threats. The torch of a devotee was snatched and thrown on the participants. The procession started again and continued to be joined by the police until Saint Marie des Fontenelles. A complaint is about to be filed. The Diocese has contacted the public authorities so that the public so that the security of legitimately iniquitous faithful is fully assured now and in the future.
With the French Presidential Election currently focusing on the disparate nature of French society, priests being spat on by Muslim gangs threatening to slit the throats of Catholics carrying statues of Our Lady can only add more urgency to the need to solve France’s broken identity.
