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Postcard From A French Parish Meet

An American reader who attended a Ben Op event in Paris gives his review


Today I received the following e-mail from an American Catholic reader who happened to be in Paris last week, and came to one of the panel discussions about the Benedict Option. I publish it with his permission, with only a slight edit for the sake of privacy:

It was great to meet you last week after the round table at St. Ferdinand des Ternes. I put together some further thoughts the next morning, but I had your email incorrect. After another week’s reflections, I’ve altered my impressions a bit.

Sitting in the audience at St. Ferd, I was surprised by the nonchalance among your French co-panelists. Some of this came across as head-in-sand optimism; some undoubtedly stems from the deep-seated opposition the French have to any theme with an American origin. No matter the subject of your book, there was likely to be some response along the lines of, “of course in America they have such concerns, but here we have the historical perspective to know that this is not really a problem.”

At the same time, I suspect you are right that the thoughtful French have an unspoken fear of what’s coming for faithful Christians in the West. I lived in France during the Columbine shootings and had to do a lot of explaining of the Second Amendment and American culture. I’ve never forgotten a sincere French woman of a certain age who confided that she was as interested as she was in American culture because “what happens in the U.S. comes here.” That fear is no doubt in the hearts of thoughtful French Catholics.

I’d also be interested to know why–aside from the above-described attitude– the [Orthodox] hieromonk Siniakov scoffed at the West’s loss of biblical sexuality. I get the argument that Christians have always been misfits, so we shouldn’t mourn our loss of influence or numbers. But as I mentioned, coming-to-Christ stories like that of Laurent Landete [a co-panelist who is head of the Emmanuel Community, an international fraternity of charismatic Catholics] are going to be much more rare if society and the state become openly hostile to people of faith. And that hostility is linked inextricably to biblical sexuality.

The panelists minimized concern over “listings”–parish enrollments–noting that Christ did not send us out to make enrollments of all nations. True enough. But numbers are important. Seventeen years ago, [living in another region of France], I recall encountering a vibrant minority of orthodox Catholics like the ones you describe meeting last week. But they were such a small minority as barely to be able to fill the first few pews of our parish church. Nothing appears to have improved, numbers-wise, since 2000 even if the faith of those who do remain is just as strong. When my little family of four worshiped at St. Etienne du Mont last Sunday, we comprised one sixth of the congregants in that historic church. With “listings” like that, how much longer will l’Etat be willing to prop up l’Eglise, and what effect will the eventual loss of the formal institutions of the French Church have on the faithful who remain?

Those questions ought to make your co-panelists run around like their hair is on fire, but they don’t. This is perhaps in part because the questions are being raised by an American, but something else must be at play.

At any rate, the panel gave me loads to think about. And in all fairness to Laurent Landete, I took away a great deal from his descriptions of how to evangelize. There are lessons there for my suburban Catholic school, including how best to attract new families, and how hard (or not) to try. I’m grateful to all of you on-stage for sharing your perspectives.

Are you a reader who was at any of the Paris events? I would love to know your take on them — good, bad, or otherwise.

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