Scuffles As French Activists Distribute Condoms Outside The Notre Dame.

Serious clashes took place on 22 March, Sunday afternoon, on the front of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, between left-wing activists and extreme right-wing activists [sic: Traditional Catholics]. One person was slightly injured and police proceeded to bring three people in for questioning, according to the police prefecture. People who present themselves as "Catholics", had confronted the Communist Party of France and the Greens who wanted to distribute condoms at the front of the doors of the cathedral so as to denounce the words of Pope Benedict XVI. A journalist from France Info saw a young man hit an activist in the face. The police intermediated between the two groups and evacuated the area. At 13:30, the front of Notre Dame was still closed to the public. Hymns in Latin "An activist is away to the emergency room with a broken nose," reports Rémi Guerber, Federal Secretary of the Young Greens, joined Sunday by nouvelobs.com. "We had thirty activists of the Young Greens and the PCF. We started to distribute tracts and condoms when a few dozens of people arrived and we were attacked. Clearly they were extreme right-wing activists: they sang in Latin and shouted traditional anti left-wing slogans "Listen to this man, be HIV-positive" Activists of Act-Up [AIDS campaigners] arrived on scene shortly thereafter. They lay down on front of the Cathedral singing: "The copote, that's life, the Pope has banned it", "church complicit in AIDS." Demonstrators of the association held a placard showed the Pope in effigy with the words "listen to this man, be HIV-positive". Several dozens of young Catholics verbally attacked demonstrators, shouting "act-up murderer". Some of them also threw eggs and water in the direction of Act-UP who are scattered around 1300h. "Pope calls for fidelity and chastity" "It is a peaceful action which echoes the words of Benedict XVI, whos engages the responsibility of the Church and and that arrives at a time when it was so hard have contructive dialogue about AIDS prevention," declared Michael Quilliou General-Secretary of Act-Up Paris. "Today, AIDS kills 8000 people per day and the condom is the only way to protect from AIDS," said Eric Marty, an official of the association. "I am indignant to see these manifestations on the front of Notre Dame Cathedral for insulting the pope, whose words are not exactly what has been relayed in the media," said Diane, a practicing Catholic from Paris. "The Pope calls for fidelity and chastity, it does not seem to be aberrant", she added. "The condom was not shocking or provoking" Young Greens defend of all provocation. "Our tract recalled the importance of condoms in AIDS prevention, says Rémi Guerber to nouvelobs.com. The condom was not shocking or provoking. [...]Nouvelobs.com failed to reach the Archdiocese of Paris. The condom "aggravates" the problem of AIDS The left-wing activists wanted to denounce the words of Pope Benedict XVI, who affirmed this week that Africa could not "not solve the problem of AIDS (...) with the distribution of condoms" and that "on the contrary (their) use aggravates the problem.

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YouTube | March 22, 2009

Tags:. .effigy. .placard. .pcf. .prefecture. .scuffles