Nationalist and traditionalist Catholic youths disrupt ecumenical celebration

The theme, "From conflict to communion, together in hope", turned out to be ironic. Conflict almost destroyed the communion.

Demonstration called by Civitas in Paris on May 10, 2015. / Ke Tribouillard/AFP

During an ecumenical celebration at St Irene Church in Lyon (France), a group of youths crowded into the front rows and tried to disrupt the service by shouting "Hail Mary" loudly and repeatedly.

This kind of disruption has occurred before.

Régine Maire, former Delegate for Ecumenism in Lyon, is considering bringing the latest incident to the attention of the French Bishops' Conference so that they can offer advice on how to react to such situations.

The ecumenical celebration was planned for Friday, December 1, at 8.30 pm, as a culmination of the commemorations of the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation. The theme, "From conflict to communion, together in hope", turned out to be ironic. Conflict almost destroyed the communion.

The music had hardly begun to play when shouts of "Hail Mary" thundered out from the first four rows, where youths "with shaved heads and black clothes" were sitting side by side, explains Maire.

"One of them stood up on the pew to hurl abuse at the participants," she recounts. "There was a moment of confusion and then the priest, those involved in the ecumenical dialogue, and even Lyon's Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, approached the youths to try to find out what they were doing there. They were just ignored."

The police, alerted by someone in the congregation, arrived and surrounded the four rows where the youths were sitting. The celebration eventually resumed in the Church's crypt. Afterwards, as people came out of the crypt, they saw that the youths had all gone and that only the police officers remained.

In a post published on its internet site, the Civitas Institute claimed responsibility for the disruption.

"Militants of the Movement of Catholic Youth of France and French Youth Civitas united to prevent an ecumenical celebration in St Irene Church in Lyon and to publicly rectify this offense to God and His Church," wrote Alain Escada, the President of Civitas.

"Cardinal Barbarin was part of this blasphemous circus organized by, among others, Protestant pastors. Militant Catholics could not allow them to get away with this scandalous event."

Even though the celebration was able to continue without further incident, Maire is still upset when recalling the disruption.

"It's such a pity. It was supposed to be time of peace and brotherhood in a parish context," she says. "And to involve the Virgin Mary like that is appalling. Our Protestant friends were dumbfounded and dismayed."

This incident is, unfortunately, not unique.

In mid-November, young Catholic nationalists disrupted a debate on "Otherness and encountering the other" in the Church of the Trinity in Bordeaux. The event was organized by the Diocesan Service of Muslim Relations and involved a Catholic priest, a Protestant theologian, and an imam.

The youths, again seated in the front rows, knelt down and continuously sang the Ave Maria throughout the debate. The Sud-Ouest newspaper reported the incident, emphasizing that it "bonded" the rest of the audience.

The same method was used against Rivon Krygier, the Rabbi of the Adath Shalom Masorti community, in March 2010. Krygier had been invited by Cardinal André Vingt-Trois to speak at a Lenten service at Notre-Dame in Paris.

As soon as the cardinal had finished introducing Rabbi Krygier, a man stood up and said that the congregation should recite the rosary "in reparation for this outrage". The rabbi had to read his speech from the sacristy.

Régine Maire also recalls that, some years ago, during a public meeting in Villeurbanne, "Cardinal Tauran himself, the President of the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue, was called a heretic by a militant of the same kind. The whole operation had been well-planned. Youths had gathered at the entrance and were distributing pamphlets".

It's difficult to predict when these kinds of incidents are going to be repeated. Those who witnessed them mention how well-organized the perpetrators were.

How should we react to such events? Should the police be called, and charges brought against the agitators? Or, on the contrary, should all publicity be avoided?

"Perhaps this matter should be considered at the bishops' conference so that we could be given advice about what to do," suggests Régine Maire. "Because, at the moment, we're definitely on the back foot."

Originally published on 4 December 2017