“Be careful, this candidate is harmful to Catholics.” The ultra-Catholic Civitas Institute, which hit the headlines after praying-on-their-knees protests against “blasphemous” theatrical performances (such as Golgota Picnic), is now running an ad campaign against François Hollande, who is widely expected to win the upcoming presidential elections.
The socialist candidate stands accused of being in favor of euthanasia and gay marriage. But the main criticism was triggered by a speech in which Hollande said he wants to enshrine in the French Constitution the separation of church and state voted in 1905.
The idea inflicts unbearable pain on members of the Civitas Institute, whose aim is to “restore Christ’s social monarchy.”
The Institute came under the spotlights after protests in December last year when members threw paint and oil at spectators watching On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God, a performance directed by the Italian Romeo Castellucci. Leaders of the Institute deemed the play, in which a fecal-like substance is hurled at a gigantic portrait of Jesus, to be “blasphemous.”
The Institute, which has connections with the Society of St Pius X, hopes to unite the national-Catholics, who feel abandoned by the National Front. The latter used to welcome fundamentalists who could not get their head round the modernization wrought by Vatican II. But recently Marine Le Pen has pushed them aside in her attempt to “de-diabolize” the party.
Ultra-Catholics decamped without regret. When former National Front leader Jean-Marie Le Pen decided to step down in 2010, most of them supported Bruno Gollnisch, a churchgoer university lecturer, in his drive to take over the helm of the party. Marine Le Pen, a divorcee , whose positions on homosexuality and abortion are not as rigid, eventually took over. It came as a blow for a section of the far right, who called her a “hussy with no faith nor law.”
Now ultra-Catholics are convinced there is a growing anti-Christian sentiment in France – which they call Christanophobia – combined with a rampant “Islamization” of Europe. Their worst fear is ending up cornered and endangered, as they say is the case for Christians of the Orient. With such a mindset, no wonder François Hollande, whom the far right considers soft on immigration, is seen as a threat to the French Catholic “way of life.”
In January 2011, a member of the Institute, abbot Cacqueray, hinted that the movement was considering running for the municipal elections in 2014. Eager to enter the political arena, the conservative national-Catholics are clearly hoping to gain strength and weight at a local level.
And sticking up anti-Hollande posters is a first step.
Réacs et fatigués 
April 4th, 2012 → 1:43 pm
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