Skip to content

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

What is a Zombie Catholic? Here's a hint: France's new president is one

Free World Class Education
FREE Catholic Classes
Emmanuel Macron embodies the new phenomenon in France.

Newly-elected President Emmanuel Macron, according to one of his biographers, embodies a new phenomenon in France known as "zombie Catholicism."

Emmanuel Macron, the new president embodies this 'zombie Catholic' phenomenon.

Emmanuel Macron, the new president embodies this "zombie Catholic" phenomenon.

Highlights

By Catholic News Agency
Catholic Online (https://www.catholic.org)
5/11/2017 (6 years ago)

Published in Europe

Keywords: Zombie Catholic, Zombie, Emmanuel Macron, France, French, French President

Paris, France (CNA) - Once among the most Catholic countries in the world, sometimes called the "eldest daughter of the Church," France has seen serious decline in churchgoing numbers in modern times. While more than 50 percent of people still identify as Catholic, only 5 percent regularly attend Mass.

Still, in France's recent presidential election, a latent Catholic identity in many of France's citizens proved to be a powerful political tool.

Sociologists Emmanuel Todd and Herve Le Bras were the first to label the phenomenon in their book "Le mystere francais" in which they explain that "Catholicism seems to have attained a kind of life after death. But since it is a question of a this-worldly life, we will define it as 'zombie Catholicism.'"


"Zombie Catholics" of France share certain characteristics, the sociologists noted. They typically come from regions of the country where resistance to the French Revolution was the strongest.

"Highly educated and meritocratic, they also privilege a traditional ordering of professional and domestic duties between husbands and wives; strong attachment to social, community, and family activities; and a general wariness over the role of the state in private and community affairs, including 'free schools' (Catholic private schools)," they wrote.

According to Marc Endeweld, a biographer of Emmanuel Macron, the new president embodies this "zombie Catholic" phenomenon. Although born into a secular family, Macron asked to be baptized at age 12. While not a regular churchgoer, Macron symbolizes "those territories of Christian tradition that benefit from social structures and economic systems capable of counterbalancing globalization, in contrast to the more Jacobin territories that have lost the protection of the state."

In the "zombie Catholic" stronghold region of Brittany, Macron won 3 out of every 4 votes. Having never been elected to any other political office, he ran as the head of a new movement, En March!, instead of an established political party. His politics have been described as liberal and progressive, though he has said he hopes to transcend the divides of the left and right political parties. At 39, he is the youngest president to ever be elected in France.

He was not the only candidate who appealed to the latent Catholics of France during the election season. Francois Fillon, former prime minister of France and a practicing Catholic, shocked pundits and political commentators throughout the country when he pulled ahead in the Republican party and beat out the moderate former Prime Minister Alain Juppe (himself a self-described "agnostic Catholic") by a wide margin. 
 


His Catholicism was such a strong part of his political identity that a headline in the newspaper Liberation proclaimed: "Help, Jesus has returned!"

President-elect Macron has said that he supports the French principle of secularism (laicite). He has also said that "we have a duty to let everybody practice their religion with dignity," though he believes that "when one enters the public realm, the laws of the Republic must prevail over religious law."

---


'Help Give every Student and Teacher FREE resources for a world-class Moral Catholic Education'


Copyright 2021 - Distributed by Catholic Online

Join the Movement
When you sign up below, you don't just join an email list - you're joining an entire movement for Free world class Catholic education.

Lent logo
Saint of the Day logo
Deacon Keith Fournier Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you. Help Now >

We ask you, humbly: don't scroll away.

Hi readers, it seems you use Catholic Online a lot; that's great! It's a little awkward to ask, but we need your help. If you have already donated, we sincerely thank you. We're not salespeople, but we depend on donations averaging $14.76 and fewer than 1% of readers give. If you donate just $5.00, the price of your coffee, Catholic Online School could keep thriving. Thank you.

Help Now >

Catholic Online Logo

Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. All materials contained on this site, whether written, audible or visual are the exclusive property of Catholic Online and are protected under U.S. and International copyright laws, © Copyright 2024 Catholic Online. Any unauthorized use, without prior written consent of Catholic Online is strictly forbidden and prohibited.

Catholic Online is a Project of Your Catholic Voice Foundation, a Not-for-Profit Corporation. Your Catholic Voice Foundation has been granted a recognition of tax exemption under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Federal Tax Identification Number: 81-0596847. Your gift is tax-deductible as allowed by law.