Tribune. An IFOP survey for The cross showed that 40% of all Catholics (and 40% also of regular churchgoers) had voted for a far-right candidate, eight points more than the French as a whole.
The grievances of certain faithful and certain clerics against Emmanuel Macron, the feeling of a decline, the tendencies towards withdrawal and the non-positioning of the bishops lead one to think that a non-negligible part of what remains the first religious group in France will choose a white ballot or a Le Pen ballot on April 24. The Catholics had remained relatively hermetic to the sirens of the National Front for many years.
To justify the choice of the nationalist candidate, some, comparing her program to that of her competitor, discern a lesser incompatibility with the Catholic magisterium, in particular on questions of the end of life. However, put into perspective with the whole of the doctrine of the Church, Marine Le Pen’s proposals are much less “Catholic-compatible” than those of Emmanuel Macron.
“National preference” and euthanasia
It must be remembered that successive popes have always defended the principle of a fundamental law, inscribed by God in the human conscience, superior to the will of a majority at a given moment. John Paul II saw the modern form of this “natural law” in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948, which begins with the recognition “of the inherent dignity of all members of the human family and of their equal and inalienable rights”.
The Lepenist perspective according to which a referendum would make it possible to modify the constitutional principle of equality (resulting from the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen of 1789, which inspired that of 1948), in order to institutionalize the “national preference”that is to say the discrimination between French and foreigners, goes against the political theology of Catholicism.
The legal populism of the far-right candidate also risks disappointing Catholics who think that by electing her they would block the legalization of euthanasia: in the new constitutional regime that the National Rally (RN) calls of its wishes, the Association for the Right to Die with Dignity could easily obtain the organization of a citizens’ initiative referendum (RIC), the outcome of which would hardly be in doubt, given the state of public opinion on this issue.
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