{"id":62387,"date":"2025-10-27T20:24:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T19:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/?p=62387"},"modified":"2025-11-13T22:06:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-13T21:06:24","slug":"marseille-court-rebukes-secularism-sacre-coeur-returns-to-theaters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/2025\/10\/27\/marseille-court-rebukes-secularism-sacre-coeur-returns-to-theaters\/","title":{"rendered":"Marseille Court Rebukes Secularism: Sacr\u00e9-C\u0153ur Returns to Theaters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-130455\" src=\"https:\/\/www.uccronline.it\/eng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/marsiglia_sacro_cuore.webp\" alt=\"marseille Sacr\u00e9-C\u0153ur\" width=\"604\" height=\"317\" \/><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><i>The Marseille court overturned Mayor <strong>Beno\u00eet Payan\u2019s decision<\/strong> and reinstated the film <strong>\u201cSacred Heart\u201d<\/strong> at the municipal theatre. A lesson to French <strong>secularism<\/strong>.<\/i><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There is a judge in <strong>Marseille<\/strong>!<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">It took the intervention of the <strong>administrative court<\/strong> of Marseille to force the municipality to restore the programming of the documentary film <strong><mark><i>Sacr\u00e9-C\u0153ur<\/i><\/mark><\/strong> (Sacred Heart).<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Its screening in the city&#8217;s venues had in fact been cancelled by Mayor <strong>Beno\u00eet Payan<\/strong>, who had invoked respect for the principle of <strong>secularism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Laicist censorship of the film Sacr\u00e9-C\u0153ur<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The film&#8217;s advertising, considered <strong>&#8220;too religious&#8221;<\/strong> for fierce French secularism, had already been banned in recent days from <strong>public media<\/strong> in stations and subways, up to the prohibition of the screening scheduled from October 22 to 28 at the municipal cinema <strong>Ch\u00e2teau de La Buzine<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A censorship that had <strong>outraged<\/strong> thousands of French people, starting with directors <strong>Steve and Sabrina Gunnell<\/strong>, authors of the feature film that recounts the Apparitions of the Sacred Heart of Jesus to <strong>Marguerite-Marie Alacoque<\/strong> in the 17th century, an event also cited by <strong>Pope Francis<\/strong> in his encyclical <i>&#8220;Dilexit nos&#8221;<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">As rightly <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.liberoquotidiano.it\/news\/esteri\/44713296\/marsiglia_vieta_film_sacro_cuore_cede_terreni_nuova_moschea\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">observed<\/a><\/em><\/strong> by <strong>Andrea Morigi<\/strong>, for Socialist Mayor Beno\u00eet Payan the screening in a municipal building violated the 1905 French law on secularism, despite approval by the <strong>state commission<\/strong> that examines the decency of cinematographic works.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Paradoxically, a few months ago, at the proposal of the same mayor, the Marseille city council had sold a plot of almost 5,000 sqm to the local <strong>Islamic community<\/strong> to proceed with the construction of a new mosque.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">And Payan himself, at the end of Ramadan, had carried out <strong>election campaigning<\/strong> among the Muslim faithful, expressing words of esteem and appreciation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Evidently, in his view, in that case <strong>no form<\/strong> of integralist secularism was being violated.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>The Marseille court rebukes the mayor<\/h2>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Fortunately Beno\u00eet Payan was not able to prevent the film about the &#8220;Sacred Heart&#8221; from being shown in <strong>336 French theatres<\/strong>, also achieving a fair success. Since October 1 almost <strong>200,000 people<\/strong> have already seen it.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The case also provoked political reactions and finally the <strong>court<\/strong> decision arrived to restore the screening, a ruling that could influence future stances in other French cities.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Court <strong><em><a href=\"https:\/\/fr.aleteia.org\/2025\/10\/26\/marseille-la-justice-ordonne-la-reprogrammation-du-film-sacre-coeur\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ruled<\/a><\/em><\/strong> that <strong>&#8220;the screening of a cinematographic work&#8221;<\/strong>, even of a religious nature, in a municipal cinema managed by public bodies <i>\u00ab<strong>does not in itself violate<\/strong> the principle of secularism\u00bb<\/i>, because <i>\u00abit does not express the recognition of a religion by the Municipality, nor does it indicate a religious preference\u00bb<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Therefore, for the Court, <i>\u00abthe <strong>Mayor of Marseille<\/strong> gravely and manifestly <strong>illegitimately<\/strong> violated the freedom of expression and the freedom of artistic creation and distribution\u00bb<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">In a brief press release, the city of Marseille announced that it has &#8220;taken note of the decision&#8221;, adding that <i>\u00abit will be implemented and <strong>the film will be screened<\/strong> as originally planned\u00bb<\/i>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A tragedy for the <strong>laicist mayor<\/strong> who will be forced to witness the screening right in the Municipality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The Marseille court overturned Mayor Beno\u00eet Payan\u2019s decision and reinstated the film \u201cSacred Heart\u201d at the municipal theatre.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":62388,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":59,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2072,2073,2075,2076,2074],"class_list":["post-62387","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-benoit-payan","tag-censorship-secularism","tag-film-sacre-coeur","tag-film-sacred-heart","tag-laicist-censorship"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.6 - 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