In many ways, we are living through the dystopian novel of Jean Raspail (1925–2020), a French Catholic whose 1973 book “The Camp of the Saints” depicted the collapse of Western civilization under the weight of mass Third World immigration.
At one point in the novel, Rapsail offered a characteristically prescient portrait of the effects of Liberal sentimentalism and racial guilt:
And justice itself, shaken to the roots of its majestic calm, uncertain whether its laws had been made to bully society or defend it, never failed to agree that, indeed, there had been extenuating circumstances, never failed to free its prisoners, who would leave the courtroom in a cloud of glory. Enough to demoralize those men and women who considered themselves good law-abiding citizens; in other words, almost the entire population.
Raspail concluded his analysis with a chilling warning: “And so, once again, opinion was shaped to believe that racism in the cause of self-defense is the scourge of humanity.”
Last weekend in France, this exact nightmarish reality played out as thousands of rioters, a great many of whom were of Arab and African descent, descended on Paris.
Along with White French radicals and leftists, the citizens of “New France” took part in large-scale student protests which culminated in civil unrest, fires, and even violence. Mainstream news outlets such as Reuters covered the event, with one headline reading: “Mass protests in France spiral into worst riots in years.” Jan Rovny, a professor of political science at the Centre for European Studies and Comparative Politics at Sciences Po, Paris, explained that initially the protests started in the outskirts of Paris, and in high schools “where students were protesting specific concerns” about the condition of school buildings, availability of substitute teachers, and the organization of the school day.
Eventually, according to the BBC, around 500,000 people participated in the protests. The same outlet reported that 1,200 people were arrested. On the ground, the situation was grim. French filmmaker James Mitchal Fenwick, though sympathetic to the animating cause, captured the unpleasant reality of the demonstrations. In his short documentary on Instagram, which currently has over 400,000 views, he observed it is “not [my intention] to glorify the destruction or violence, but simply to document the other side of what was unfolding around us.”
The Dispatch
Predictably, leftist sympathizers and radicals attempted to sanitize the events. French MP Clémence Guetté of the left-wing party La France Insoumise, said on X that it was government’s response which provoked the protesters and made the situation “degenerate.”
In reality, the opposite is true. Law enforcement was merely doing its job by responding to general lawlessness. Social media users provided ample proof of that. One rioter was seen blasphemously climbing onto the statue of St. Joan of Arc, the patron saint of France. Meanwhile, the city hall of Marseille was overrun by rioters hoisting Palestinian flags. Galeries Lafayette, the French equivalent of New York City’s luxury department store Bergdorf Goodman, was ignominiously looted by dozens of masked men. Perhaps the most offensive rioting was the burning of the town hall of Limoges, built in 1873. Having survived both world wars, alas, the spire collapsed in the roaring flames.
Symbolically, the rioting and specifically the peoples participating in the same lead one to believe “Old France” has fallen. Gone is the characteristic decorum of Catholic society, the honor of the fatherland, and the prominence of the native French people. In its place is a void of manners and propriety, hostile foreigners, and hatred for Parisian culture.
A sign for our times?
In the book of the Apocalypse, St. John provides insight into what the times that precede the end of the world will look like. In Chapter 20, we find the following description (verses 7-9):
Now when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be released from his prison and will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle, whose number is as the sand of the sea. They went up on the breadth of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them (emphasis added).
According to the famous 17th century Jesuit exegete Fr. Cornelius A Lapidé, the “camp of the saints” refers to “the places and hiding-places into which Christians will flock together in troops, fleeing the persecution of Antichrist.” This “fleeing” will mimic the way in which the Old Testament Jews in (1 Maccabees 2:1, 28) responded to the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, a tyrannical ruler.
Of course, this is not to say with certitude that these are the End Times proper nor should Catholics abandon their grave duty to work to restore — wherever possible — Christendom. At the same time, the widespread loss of faith and corporate apostasy following the Second Vatican Council and its reforms has undoubtedly left a relatively small number of faithful Catholics. Today, we find enormous persecution against traditional Catholic beliefs and, at present, no government which recognizes the Social Rights of Christ the King. In this sense, one can see how there is a similarity to St. John’s apocalyptic vision.
Only God knows the future of “New France” but even in these dark times we should take heart knowing that “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world (John 16, 33).”
