The alleged murder by far-left activists of a young Frenchman who had converted to Catholicism has caused profound shock in France. Source: EWTN News.
Quentin Deranque, 23, died in a Lyon hospital on February 14 after being brutally beaten two days earlier during a pro-Palestinian conference organised by the left-wing party La France Insoumise (“unbowed/defiant”) at the Lyon Institute of Political Studies.
The Guardian reports eleven suspects, including a parliamentary aide to France’s hard-left party, have been arrested in connection with the killing.
The young man, a tennis enthusiast and a philosophy student known for his pro-life activism — according to his lawyer, Fabien Rajon — had attended the event intending to demonstrate peacefully alongside the Nemesis collective, founded in 2019 to defend the rights of women in the West against certain currents of contemporary feminism. The Guardian describes Némésis as an anti-immigration collective.
A member of St George Parish in Lyon, Mr Deranque also belonged to the traditionalist congregation Priestly Fraternity of St Peter (FSSP).
During a memorial service held on February 15 at St George Church, parish priest Fr Laurent Spriet urged prayers for his soul and emphasised that now “is a time for compassion, respect, prayer, and to let the police and the justice system do their work”.
According to his lawyer, Mr Deranque was the victim of a “methodically prepared ambush” by “organised and trained individuals, vastly superior in number and armed, some with their faces masked, who had apparently conducted prior reconnaissance and presumably had accomplices.”
French President Emmanuel Macron called for calm after the attack and stated that “no cause or ideology will ever justify killing”.
FULL STORY
France in shock over murder of young convert and pro-life activist Quentin Deranque (EWTN News)
Parliamentary aide among 11 arrested over killing of French far-right activist (The Guardian)
