Catholic priests in France, siding with Macron

Catholic bishops in France issued a reflection on voting, after the first round of the presidential elections in which, without naming a candidate, an obvious preference for Emmanuel Macron against Marine Le Pen can be observed.

The the French bishops’ conference was held hours after the first round of the presidential elections in France, where Emmanuel Macron, founder of En Marche!, a center-left political movement, and Marine Le Pen, leader of the far-right National Front, got the votes to go into the second round.

The bishops’ spokesman, Monsignor Olivier Ribadeau Dumas, wrote in the statement that it is important to welcome migrants and to have European people better adhere to the European project.

”Today, the main risk would be to renounce fighting for the future and to yield to fatalism,” the bishops said in the statement.

The bishops adherence to the European project and the welcoming of migrants come in sharp contrast with Marine Le Pen‘s program.

Le Pen has vowed to restrict immigration and clamp down on migrants. She also has said she would try to renegotiate France’s membership in the European Union.

The bishops position comes as Catholics in France usually tend to vote for right wing candidates, according to Bernard Bourdin, professor of political philosophy at the Catholic Institute of Paris.

”We face a crisis of political orientation. The Catholic vote has always leaned mainly toward the right. This pattern has never been truer than now. Especially on the center-right, although we can feel a swing toward an identity vote,” said Bourdin.

Before the first round of elections, Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille spoke against isolationism and the candidates, such as Marine Le Pen, who put the national identity and the fear of Islam at the forefront of their political platforms.

”We won’t be able to rethink the future of our nation if we isolate ourselves from one another. Some people think that this cultural isolation is a good thing. But that’s a lure,” he said.
If important figures of the clergy preferred not to name a specific candidate, but only to hint at one, Bible scholar Anne Soupa wasn’t shy to publicly endorse Emmanuel Macron.

Fearing that a growing number of Catholics were considering voting for the candidates on the far right, Soupa said she felt compelled to proclaim her disdain of a ”defensive counterculture” at work in some Catholic circles.

”The promoters of that counterculture claim to act in the name of Catholicism, of which they seem to have a diluted understanding: Instead of spreading the good news of the Gospel and trying to see the face of Christ in their brothers or sisters, they give the priority to identity or ethical issues and limit their Christian advocacy to these sole issues,” she said.

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen will face off on May 7.