Is the anti-cult law supported by mainstream religions in France?
No. Since the About-Picard private bill against “groups of a cultic character” was adopted in first reading by the National Assembly, on June 22, 2000, the representatives of the great religions expressed, repeatedly, their anxieties about the dangers that this text would have for freedom of religion. Shortly before its passage to the French House, the two main leaders of the Catholic and Protestants Churches of France, Cardinal Louis-Marie Cardinal Bill, President of the French Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Pastor Jean Arnold de Clermont, President of the Protestant Federation of France, protested the law in a letter sent to the French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin. On June 2000, Pope John Paul II also said when accepting the credential of a new French ambassador to the Vatican that discrimination against “one or other form of religious practice … will necessarily create a climate of tension, intolerance, opposition and suspicion, not conducive to social peace.
No. Since the About-Picard private bill against “groups of a cultic character” was adopted in first reading by the National Assembly, on June 22, 2000, the representatives of the great religions expressed, repeatedly, their anxieties about the dangers that this text would have for freedom of religion. Shortly before its passage to the French House, the two main leaders of the Catholic and Protestants Churches of France, Cardinal Louis-Marie Cardinal Bill, President of the French Conference of Catholic Bishops, and Pastor Jean Arnold de Clermont, President of the Protestant Federation of France, protested the law in a letter sent to the French Prime Minister, Lionel Jospin. On June 2000, Pope John Paul II also said when accepting the credential of a new French ambassador to the Vatican that discrimination against “one or other form of religious practice …
