France: Can the Country Ban a Church?

June 19, 2009

Author: Robert Marquand

Source: The Christian Science Monitor

http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0619/p06s11-woeu.html

France mingles a strong private Roman Catholicism with an ardent public secularism, and its acceptance of smaller faiths and sects swings back and forth. But in the past decade, there's been a singleminded focus on the Church of Scientology and its estimated 45,000 members here.

Now, in closing arguments before a criminal court in Paris, two French prosecutors this week called for dissolution of the church itself, the first such instance in France.

The case, which brings suits filed years ago by two former adherents charging the church with fraud, swindling, and mental harm, treads into legal waters rarely navigated in a nation that, since 1905, has kept religion a strictly private matter.

The Church of Scientology and its legal team argue vociferously that French authorities are using Scientology as a "scapegoat," as one defense lawyer said, for an overall campaign in France against freedom of religion and a crackdown on sects.

How far the court will go toward banning Scientology, the US-based church known for its Hollywood celebrities and unorthodox recruiting tactics, won't be known until an Oct. 27 ruling.