An organization claiming to be civil, Free Thoughts (La Libre Pensée) wants to remove another Christian-related public monument in France in the name of secularism, this time they are disturbed by a statue of the Virgin Mary. However, the mayor of the settlement and the locals object to the removal of the statue.
A public statue of the Virgin Mary became the subject of an absurd debate. The amulet has been standing at a road intersection since time immemorial on a small French island, Île de Ré in the Atlantic Ocean, in a settlement called La-Flotte-en-Ré, writes the weekly newspaper Valeurs actuelles .
Two years ago, a car crashed into the statue, severely damaging the statue and its base.
The mayor of La-Flotte-en-Ré, Jean-Paul Héraudeau, restored the work to its original form and then returned it to its usual place.
However, the organization called Free Thoughts (La Libre Pensée), which claims to be civil, attacked the statue and the city administration in court, because according to the organization, the law regulating secularism in France, which has been in force since 1905, prohibits the display of religious symbols in public spaces in France.
Based on the mayor's point of view, however, the organization's efforts and the permanent removal of the statue of the Virgin Mary - with or without a court decision - will not be successful among the local residents, because the statue has become part of the life and cultural heritage of the settlement, and if it is not there those two the accident was years ago, so there was no controversy or court case surrounding the statue, the city manager reminded.
The court in Poitiers will announce a verdict in the case at the beginning of March.
Activists of Free Thoughts have previously successfully removed - using a similar procedure - a monument erected in honor of St. Michael in Sables-d'Olonne, also in western France, despite the will and protests of the local residents.
Source and image: origo.hu Valeurs actuelles
