Human Rights Court Shields Gross Sacrilege

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STRASBOURG, France (ChurchMilitant.com) - A pro-abortion feminist who "aborted" Jesus while demonstrating topless and urinating before the Blessed Sacrament in an iconic French church is trumpeting her victory in the European Court of Human Rights.

"The ruling is historical. It's going to set legal precedents, and what it means for women and militant feminists who use their bodies to protest is that they may now be allowed to do so in France," Éloïse Bouton boasted last Sunday. 

In a 30-page ruling, the ECHR overturned the judgment of three French courts, which sentenced Bouton to a one-month imprisonment and ordered her to pay the parish priest 2,000 euros for moral damages and procedural costs of up to 1,500 euros.

The ECHR argued that the French courts violated article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights, guaranteeing the protestor "freedom of expression." 

Reversing the ruling of the Court of Cassation, France's highest judicial court, the ECHR ordered France to pay Bouton a total of 9,800 euros, including 2,000 euros for moral damages and 7,800 euros for costs and expenses.

There was "no abusive or hateful behavior" on the part of the protestor, the court insisted, "however shocking it may have been for others in view of the nudity which she exhibited in a public place." 

Moreover, the act "had the sole objective of contributing, through a deliberately provocative performance, to the public debate on women's rights, more specifically on the right to abortion," the ECHR maintained. 

France's domestic courts "did not examine whether the applicant's action was "gratuitously offensive" to religious beliefs," or "if it was abusive or if it incited disrespect or hatred towards the Catholic Church," the ECHR ruling claimed. 

On Dec. 20, 2013, Bouton interrupted a rehearsal of Christmas carols in the historic Church of Saint-Marie-Madeleine by appearing topless in front of the altar and using beef liver to simulate an abortion of Jesus. 

In an interview with Le Nouvel Observateur, the feminist explained that she was holding "two pieces of beef liver in the hands, symbolizing the aborted baby Jesus." Bouton was also wearing a blue veil to mock the Virgin Mary and a crown of thorns to ridicule Jesus. 

Painted on her chest and back was the French slogan "344 salope" (344th slut), referring to an open letter of 343 French women who admitted to having an abortion in 1971. 

The activist specified that the Church of Saint-Marie-Madeleine had been chosen "for its symbolic [value] at the international level" and that she had invited 10 journalists to record and publicize the event. 

The Ukrainian group Femen, which Bouton was a member of, celebrated the act on social media, writing, "Christmas is canceled!" and "The holy mother Éloïse has just aborted the embryo of Jesus on the altar of the Madeleine."

Bioethicist and international law expert Dr. Grégor Puppinck slammed the ECHR's "double standards" for defending attacks in churches and against the Church while prosecuting blasphemy against Islam. 

Puppinck, who is director of the European Centre for Law and Justice, cited the 2018 case of an Austrian lecturer who was accused of describing Mohammed's sexual relationship with his nine-year-old child bride, Aisha, as "pedophilia." 

The ECHR ruled that the lecturer had not sought to inform the public objectively but to "demonstrate that Muhammad is not worthy of worship." Speaking of Muhammad as a "pedophile" would be a "generalization without any factual basis" and would be "likely to arouse justified indignation" among Muslims.

According to the court, these remarks constituted "a malicious violation of the spirit of tolerance that underpins democratic society" and were likely to "stir up prejudice" and "endanger religious peace," Puppinck observed.

"The Austrian lecturer only spoke the truth, with decency and discretion, while the Femen's aim was to hurt and offend. Why condemn the former and defend the latter? How can we not see in this double standard the Court's own prejudices?" the legal expert asked. 

"The Court would never have supported such a macabre display if it had taken place in a mosque or in the precincts of a courthouse," Puppinck stressed. "It is becoming a habit at the ECHR to defend these attacks in churches and against the Church." 

In 2018, the ECHR ruled that the blasphemy committed by the feminist punk group Pussy Riots in the Orthodox cathedral in Moscow was protected expression. The court also condemned Lithuania for sanctioning blasphemous advertisements featuring Christ and the Virgin Mary.

A report published in 2020 by the European Centre for Law and Justice shows how radical judges who are former members or leaders of leftist organizations like the George Soros-funded Open Society Foundations have infiltrated the ECHR. 

A report called "NGOs and the Judges of the ECHR" shows that at least 22 of the 100 permanent judges who have served on the ECHR between 2009 and 2019 are former officials or collaborators of seven nongovernmental organizations that are highly active before the court.

Twelve judges are linked to the George Soros-funded Open Society Foundations, seven to the Helsinki committees, five to the International Commission of Jurists, three to Amnesty International and one each to Human Rights Watch, Interights and the AIRE Centre, the report noted. 

Further, since 2009, there have been at least 185 cases in which at least one of these seven NGOs was officially involved in the proceedings. in 88 of these cases, judges sat in a case in which the NGO with which they were linked was involved.

Over the same period, there were only 12 instances in which a judge withdrew from a case, apparently because of a link with an NGO involved in the case. 

"This situation calls into question the independence of the Court and the impartiality of the judges and is contrary to the rules which the ECHR itself imposes on States in this area," the report observed. "It is all the more problematic as the Court's power is exceptional."

Pussy Riot's lawyer, who formerly worked for a George Soros foundation, has since become a judge at the ECHR, Puppinck revealed.

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