Editor prosecuted for expressing Catholic teaching on same-sex unions
The editor-in-chief of the French Catholic news site Renaissance Catholique, Jean-Pierre Maugendre, has been acquitted after accusations of inciting "discrimination against LGBT people". The text published merely reaffirmed established Catholic teaching on the matter. The court found him not guilty.
In 2021, Catholic editor and author Jean-Pierre Maugendre published an article on the Renaissance Catholique website signed by a Catholic cardinal and several other prelates reaffirming Catholic teaching on same-sex unions. Following its publication, a French LGBT association filed a criminal complaint against the editor, accusing him of "incitement to discrimination against a group of people on the basis of their sexual orientation". In their complaint, they argued that the following statements constituted a crime:
"Civil authorities must not establish civil or legal unions between two persons of the same sex, which clearly imitate the union of marriage, even if such unions do not receive the name of marriage, since such unions would encourage serious sin for the persons concerned and would cause a serious scandal for others."
French legislation (specifically Article 23 of the law of 29 July 1881 on the freedom of the press) punishes anyone who incites any form of discrimination on the grounds of sexual orientation "by any means of communication to the public by electronic means, directly provoking the perpetrator or perpetrators to commit the said act, if the provocation was followed by an effect". It was clear to the court that Mr Maugendre's comments did not come close to this offence. On 16 November 2022, the Paris Court of Appeal upheld the judgment of the court of first instance (of 23 November 2021) and declared Jean-Pierre Maugendre not guilty of the crimes of which he had been accused.
The Court of Appeal stated that the remarks contained in the article "only express the opinion of the Catholic Church on the issue of civil unions between persons of the same sex (...) These are statements protected by freedom of expression and opinion, since they do not contain any exhortation to commit positive acts of discrimination". In fact, the article was mainly based on an official document issued by the Catholic Church in 2003 (Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, "Considerations on the legal recognition projects of unions between homosexual people").
Despite the clear judicial victory, this case points to a growing number of Christian individuals who are legally prosecuted for the public expression of their religious beliefs on moral issues.
Source: Die Tagespot, Renaissance Catholique, Lesalonbeige.fr
Image: Wikimedia Commons
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