purikuttar: Plan for Mormon temple rattles Catholics in a French suburb

সোমবার, ২৯ অক্টোবর, ২০১২

Plan for Mormon temple rattles Catholics in a French suburb

In the Parisian suburb of Le Chesnay, plans to build the first Mormon temple in mainland France has revealed insecurities about the minority status of Catholics in France.

By Bastien Inzaurralde,?Correspondent / October 28, 2012

A dispute over the construction of a Mormon temple in a suburb of Paris is revealing as much about France's changing religious profile as it does about possible prejudice against the little known religion.

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In the Parisian suburb of Le Chesnay, where construction continues amid pending court action to bar the project, the complaints are legion: Missionaries will bother residents, children could be targeted for conversion without parents' knowledge, construction will be disruptive, the edifice will be too large for the town.

But what seems equally on display is unease about a profound decline in Catholic practice, accompanied by a rise ? however small ? in Christian evangelicalism.

?It [the Catholic church] registers the fact ? the word is constantly used in its documents ? that it is today a minority and it has to make do in a society where it only is a minority, but where, as a minority, it also needs to defend its identity,? says Philippe Portier, a professor of political science at the Practical School of High Studies.

Doorbells will ring

For Michelle Carloz, it was worries about missionaries that first came to mind when she heard about the plans to build the temple in Le Chesnay, an affluent and mainly Catholic community of 30,000 about 10 miles west of Paris, near Versailles.

?I told myself, ?Here we go again, it?s going to start again as it was with the Jehovah?s Witnesses,?? says Mrs. Carloz, the secretary of a local group promoting urban development in the residents? interests. Carloz, a practicing Catholic, first heard about the project in 2010. ?We?ve had some coming to our streets all the time, all the time, all the time, ringing doorbells. That was my first reaction.?

Jean-Louis Schlegel, a philosopher and religion sociologist, says such a response is not unusual. French people tend to be wary of Mormon missionaries and tend to confuse them with Jehovah?s Witnesses, he says.

?I am not sure that the average Catholic from Le Chesnay sees the building of a Mormon temple with a favorable eye, even more so given such a big one,? Mr. Schlegel says, referring to the size of the project, which also includes a park, a guest house for those going to the temple, a house for the temple?s president, an information center, housing for the missionaries working in the temple, and an underground parking lot.

Le Chesnay Mayor Philippe Brillault says that local Catholics were intrigued, and perhaps puzzled, by the temple project when it became public last year. ?I would tend to say that, given that the Mormons are called the Church of Jesus Christ, there can be either a perception of confusion, or a perception of competition,? he says.