A decade after Marguerite Stern entered Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, screaming and topless, to demonstrate her hatred of the Church and the Pope, she has apologised to Catholics for her actions. Source: OSV News.
Ms Stern said the Catholic tradition soothes, bringing people together, and that her past gesture was one of “damaging a part of France, and therefore a part of myself.”
“I love Notre Dame Cathedral,” she said last week.
Ms Stern first made a name for herself with high-profile provocative interventions in France, Tunisia and Morocco, intending to convey messages of radical feminism, including opposition to religion and the fight against homophobia.
As part of the Femen movement, with Ukrainian origin, she stormed Notre Dame on February 12, 2013, a day after Pope Benedict XVI resigned from the papacy, and with eight other women, displayed slogans such as “Pope No More” and “Get lost, homophobe” on their bare torsos.
They had struck and rung new bells commissioned to mark the cathedral’s 850th anniversary, displayed in the nave and waiting to be assembled at the top of the towers.
Ms Stern’s aim was to protest against the Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage, which was about to be legalised in France.
But she has since distanced herself from some of Femen’s battles, and in particular from the activism of “trans women”. She now considers transgender ideology to be harmful. She openly opposes it, arousing the hostility of the circles that promote it.
Ms Stern is also more benevolent toward the Church today.
“It is easy and fashionable right now to denigrate and even trample on Catholics as I did for years, perhaps because of the culture of forgiveness they have,” she said.
“I contributed to reinforcing this climate in France. I sincerely apologise for that, to those I hurt.”
FULL STORY
Former Femen activist apologises for desecrating Notre Dame in 2013 protest against Church, Pope (By Caroline de Sury, OSV News)
