Firstly, with intellectual honesty, the human race does not have roots but rather origins.
Trees are the ones with roots; they are fixed in place.
As anthropologists explain, since Sapiens, men (and women) have always moved as part of migrations. This is how the history of the world has been shaped.
The term “Judeo-Christian” is historically foreign to Catholicism, and to a certain extent, to France.
If we assume that our country is originally of Catholic essence, it is imperative to recall that Catholicism is very little Judeo-Christian.
The omnipresent ancient heritage makes it more of a pagan-Christian religion.
Many historians see in the Virgin Mary the Christian interpretation of the ancient Mother Goddess. As for the saints, venerated in a fetishistic manner by some, one can easily recognize the spirits and geniuses of yore in them; like them, they are endowed with powers such as thaumaturgy or prophecy; like them, they watch over a spring, a forest, a village, a craft.
This is not the case in Judaism, where God is an Absolute Being: omnipresent, omniscient, and omnipotent, with no intermediary between Him and humans. Above all, the feminine is absent there unless it is vilified.
And what about the places of worship… Unlike the sober and unadorned Jewish synagogues and Protestant temples, Catholic churches are richly adorned, full of illustrated representations, akin to the ancient sanctuaries erected by our ancestors for their civic gods.
The same goes for the religious processions and traditions surrounding certain celebrations such as Christmas, Easter, or Candlemas, directly stemming from the pre-Christian era.
However, let us not forget that art (especially religious art) is frowned upon by the god Yahweh… Does He not say to Moses: “You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the sea”?… This contrasts with the beautiful Romanesque and Gothic basilicas of the Middle Ages, true artistic masterpieces for anyone, regardless of their religion.
The Catholic liturgy itself relies heavily on ritual elements, whereas in Judaism and Protestantism, only the interpretation of biblical readings is at the heart of the de-ritualized celebration. Here, emphasis is placed on liturgical objects, patristic writings, relics, processions, and other elements that find their roots in a non-biblical past but inherited from a European and pre-Christian past.
The few examples mentioned and others, established by many historians, anthropologists, and sociologists, link Catholicism – particularly French Catholicism – to its pagan roots more than to the Hebrew scriptures, whose scope and influence were infinitely greater for Protestantism.
Intellectual honesty and a minimum of historical-religious knowledge should lead us to reconsider the supposed Judeo-Christianity of our country.
It seems more beneficial to stop invoking this hypothetical Judeo-Christianity and to defend the vision of a secular France proud of its pagan-Christian roots.
Because if the Bible is the foundation of Christian faith, the Celts, Germans, Greeks, and Romans – who were not Christians – are, for their part, the founders of our civilization.
