SW News: A French lawmaker has flayed the rabid secularization and its staunch opposition to Christian religious symbols in the country. Member of parliament Francois Xavier Bellamy, a Catholic who is pro-life and a supporter of the traditional family, has openly come out in support of the residents of a town who are opposing the bid to remove a decades-old statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary from the square.

A few days ago, the lawmaker visited the town of La Flotte-en-Re on the Isle de Re to express solidarity with the statue of the Holy Mother, which is in the eye of a storm, says a report in French Catholic news site Famille Chretienne. The anti-clerical Libre Pensee has taken cudgels against the sacred image by citing the 1905 law that forbids erecting religious monuments or symbols on public property. The case has been taken to the administrative court of Poitiers and the judgement will be pronounced on March 3.

During his visit to the town, Bellamy said the attempt to remove the statue that was set up to give thanks to the Virgin for the safe return of soldiers after the end of the Second World War shows that the state itself is in the process of uprooting its own symbols. He pointed out that more than rabid secularism, what is more threatening is the morbid reality that the French are unaware of the Judeo-Christian origin of their culture and heritage. “It is in the name of freedom that we must protect these monuments that are under threat today, he said.

The controversy erupted after the town reinstalled the sacred image on its pedestal after it was knocked down by a vehicle that rammed into it in 2020. In December last year, when the town authorities repaired the statue and reinstalled it, the anti-clerical outfit raised a hue and cry citing the early 20th-century law that prohibits the installation of religious symbols in public places.

However, the mayor of the town told a French daily that the sacred image of Our Lady has been part of the urban landscape of La-Flotte-en-Re for decades and removing it would be nothing but absurdity, adding that it would be erasing the history of the town. Mayor Jean-Marie told Le Figaro, “This statue of the Virgin was there before me and it will be there after I am gone.” He also stressed the fact that for all residents of the town, including Catholics, non-Catholics and atheists, Our Lady’s statue is part of the historical heritage and their lives as well.

Residents of the town are pressing ahead with a signature campaign to save the statue and so far, 6,600 people have signed it. The picturesque sacred statue of Mother Mary was installed in the town in 1945 soon after World War II ended when many young men who had gone to the battlefront returned unscathed. Catholics attributed it to the intercession of the Blessed Mother to whom they had prayed for the safe return of their sons, husbands and brothers.