In Brittany, fundamentalist Catholics from Civitas block a church to cancel a “profanatory” concert – Liberation

2023-05-14 14:32:11

About thirty people, members or relatives of the fundamentalist party Civitas, blocked access to the Saint-Cornély church in Carnac (Morbihan) on Saturday May 13. They obtained the cancellation of a concert by the American artist Kali Malone, in particular because of the title of two songs.

In the street and in front of the churches, the extreme right is freewheeling. About thirty people, members or relatives of the fundamentalist Catholic political party Civitas, prevented access to the Saint-Cornély church in Carnac (Morbihan) on Saturday May 13. The reason for their anger? The organization of a concert by the American artist Kali Malone within the religious building, deemed profanatory. And which they ended up obtaining the cancellation.

Mobilization is reported by West France, which specifies that the demonstrators (32 in total according to the newspaper) blocked for more than an hour… in front of a hundred helpless spectators and volunteers. “Electro concert in a church, what are our bishops doing?” or “My house is a house of prayer”, they could read on the signs brandished by the militants facing them. Meanwhile, on the other side of the door of the place of worship, gendarmes, elected officials and activists were talking.

The event recalls the cancellation, in April, of the concert of Bilal Hassani in a desecrated church in Metz (Moselle). The artist, icon of the disturbing LGBT + community for certain extremist (and homophobic) Catholic fringes, had made this decision after receiving threats. Eddy de Pretto, he had been cyberharassed after a concert in the Saint-Eustache church in Paris, where he had performed his piece What’s the point, evoking the difficulties of reconciling his homosexuality and his faith. Justice condemned eleven harassers of the singer last December.

“Subversive Acoustic Pieces”

But what did organist Kali Malone do this time to incur their wrath? Answer: a title called To profane the sacredLatin alliance of the terms “holy and profane”, and another The Sacrificial Code, or the “sacrificial code”. Unthinkable for Civitas who, a few days earlier, had written an open letter to the Bishop of Vannes, Monseigneur Centène, deploring a “concert profane” as well as “several subversive acoustic pieces”.

The parish priest of Carnac, Dominique Le Quernec, then replied to the site interclochers.frexplaining that the “The Parish and Priests Concerts Commission had looked very closely at the proposed works without detecting anything anti-Christian or profanatory”. The work To profane the sacred was not even on the program of the artist, invited as part of the event “You Origin”, carried by the American artist Stephan O’Malley.

After winning their case, the Saint-Cornély blockers left around 11 p.m., calmly escorted by gendarmes. West France says that the mayor of Carnac, Olivier Lepick, then addressed the disappointed and annoyed crowd: “I know it’s giving them a win they don’t deserve, I understand it’s not a very satisfying decision. But they were ready to go as far as violence and I can’t accept that.”. A lost battle therefore, but which should know a revenge: the elected official affirms that he will file a complaint, after one of his assistants “took a slap from one of the few young women in the audience.”