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Why France's 'Zombie Catholics' are so powerful
CWR ^ | December 6, 2016

Posted on 12/06/2016 3:28:03 AM PST by NYer

Paris, France, Dec 6, 2016 / 03:02 am (CNA).- It happened in Britain. It happened in the U.S.

 

And now it’s happening in France.

 

A staunchly right-winged politician whose chances seemed slim when the primaries began is now in line to become the next President of France.

 

François Fillon, former prime minister of France and a faithful Catholic, has pulled ahead in the Republican party, shocking pundits and political commentators throughout the country and beating out the moderate former Prime Minister Alain Juppé by a wide margin.  

 

His Catholicism is such a strong part of his character that a headline in the newspaper Libération proclaimed: “Help, Jesus has returned!”

 

With an active faith and conservative values, Fillon has promised to preserve traditional family values and to uphold France’s Catholic roots, and holds traditional views about marriage and abortion, though he has said he does not plan to overturn the 1975 law that legalized abortion.

 

“I will put the family at the heart of all public politics,” Fillon promised in a recent rally.

 

The family was “certainly not a place for dangerous social experimentation”, he said, referring to recently adapted adoption rights for same-sex couples.

 

To understand his success in a country where numbers of churchgoers have plummeted, experts point to the cultural Catholics of France - geniously dubbed les zombies catholiques (the zombie Catholics) by sociologists Emmanuel Todd and Hervé Le Bras. In their book Le mystère français, Todd and Le Bras explain that “Catholicism seems to have attained a kind of life after death. But since it is a question of a this-worldly life, we will define it as ‘zombie Catholicism.’”

 

Once one of the most Catholic countries in Europe, France has seen a steady decline in churchgoers over the years, with only 15 percent of the country’s 41.6 million Catholics who are considered regular or even occasional churchgoers today.

 

But there are still pockets in France where the social values of Catholicism have remained strong despite waning church numbers - explaining, at least in part, the success of Fillon.

 

“Zombie Catholics share certain symptoms: Not only do they hail from regions where resistance was greatest to the French Revolution, but they also have taken advantage of the benefits that flowed from that seismic event,” Zaretsky wrote.

 

“Highly educated and meritocratic, they also privilege a traditional ordering of professional and domestic duties between husbands and wives; strong attachment to social, community, and family activities; and a general wariness over the role of the state in private and community affairs, including ‘free schools’ (Catholic private schools).”

 

Fillon shares most of these characteristics, and was able to harness his appeal to the zombie Catholics for political gain.

 

Robert Zaretsky writes in Foreign Policy Magazine that Fillon has “never made any secret of his beliefs.” He hails from a deeply Catholic part of France, and goes on retreat every year.

 

Fillon recalls his Catholic upbringing fondly in his campaign book Faire (“To Make”), and explains how the Catholic worldview has shaped who he is as a person: “I was raised in this tradition, and I have kept this faith.”

 

Voters in regions considered zombie Catholic strongholds, such as the western regions of  the Vendée and Brittany, turned out in strong numbers for Fillon. Areas considered more liberal - southern regions, Paris and other large cities - had lower turnout numbers overall in the primaries.

 

Whether his popularity and appeal will hold long enough to win him the office remains to be seen. He will run against Marine Le Pen, the leader of the far-right National Front, and the Socialist nominee, which will be chosen in January. Incumbent president François Hollande of the Socialist Party declined to run for another term.

 

The first round of the 2017 French presidential election will be held on April 23, 2017. Should no candidate win an outright majority, a second vote between the top two candidates will be held on May 7.



TOPICS: Catholic; Current Events; Religion & Culture; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: elections; france; history

1 posted on 12/06/2016 3:28:03 AM PST by NYer
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To: Tax-chick; GregB; SumProVita; narses; bboop; SevenofNine; Ronaldus Magnus; tiki; Salvation; ...
To understand his success in a country where numbers of churchgoers have plummeted, experts point to the cultural Catholics of France - geniously dubbed les zombies catholiques (the zombie Catholics) by sociologists Emmanuel Todd and Hervé Le Bras. In their book Le mystère français, Todd and Le Bras explain that “Catholicism seems to have attained a kind of life after death. But since it is a question of a this-worldly life, we will define it as ‘zombie Catholicism.’”

Catholic ping!

2 posted on 12/06/2016 3:28:37 AM PST by NYer (Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy them. Mt 6:19)
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To: NYer

MFGA!


3 posted on 12/06/2016 3:51:14 AM PST by Buckeye Battle Cry (Somewhere Jeb weeps. (please clap))
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To: Buckeye Battle Cry

I didn’t know holding to and espousing “family values” was a symptom.

Symptoms are physiological, physical or psychological signs of disease. Are these writers now saying believing in family values is a “symptom”?

Would they rather have France become a full blown Germany?

I think I do not care for them. I do not adhere to their values. I, too, though a Buddhist, would vote for the Catholic.


4 posted on 12/06/2016 4:17:14 AM PST by Bodega (we are developing less and less common sense...world wide)
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To: NYer

This has less to do with Catholics than the slow realization; that it’s better to live as a sinner in a Christian country that the most righteous sand-negro living under Sharia law.


5 posted on 12/06/2016 4:18:44 AM PST by exPBRrat
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To: NYer

What is relevant to this story are the comments of Peter Hitchens on his latest lengthy blog post about the UK and Brexit:

“....France will do all she can to do us down. France has several reasons to do this. Her establishment wants to squash Marine Le Pen’s Front National, and making an exit from the EU look hard and painful will help this process.....”

Associate Francois Fillon with faith but understand his conservative social and economic speeches do not reflect what his policy will be when he is elected.

Fillon is a stooge for the establishment to stop France’s Donald Trump, Marine LePen.

Francois Fillon is “Le Ted Cruz de France”.


6 posted on 12/06/2016 5:33:40 AM PST by Nextrush (Freedom is everybody's business: Remember Pastor Niemoller)
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To: NYer

And, being French, they are essentially contrarian.

The more the Pope pulls to the Left the more they will veer to the Right.


7 posted on 12/06/2016 6:02:11 AM PST by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Bodega
A Buddhist?
Since there is no God in Buddhism, you believe an after-life, nothingness, what? Just curious.
8 posted on 12/06/2016 6:25:18 AM PST by cloudmountain
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To: NYer
“Catholicism seems to have attained a kind of life after death. But since it is a question of a this-worldly life, we will define it as ‘zombie Catholicism.’”

Yes. Christ is head of our Church, he suffered death, was buried, and came to life. Is it really so strange that His Church should follow suit?

As for 'this-worldly', it is only the subscribers of ideologies that have placed all of their eggs in the singular basket of this world, while we Catholics look for God's will to be done on earth as it is in Heaven.

9 posted on 01/17/2017 5:46:08 PM PST by TradicalRC (To the right of the pope, like most folks...)
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