Cyril Couderc - Private school teacher fired for being openly gay files complaint

Almost a year after being fired from his teaching post for being gay, Cyril Couderc has decided to file a complaint with the French Equal Opportunities and Anti-Discrimination Commission (Halde).

(Screenshot from Daniel school promotional video)

In September last year Couderc came out publicly after he moved in with his partner.

His employers at Daniel school in the town of Guebwiller in north-eastern France knew of his sexual orientation but weren't happy at his being openly gay.

And as the national radio station RTL reports, the school principal sacked the 35-year-old who had been teaching at the school for 10 years.

Daniel is a private religious school, teaching children from Maternelle (kindegarten) age all the way through to the end of Collège or Junior High (14 or 15-year-olds).

"Its teachers are all believers," says the school's promotional video. "They're committed to passing on not only that faith but also a thorough education and an understanding of religious values and behaviour."



Values which Couderc said the principal of the school had told him had not been "respected" by his having openly declared his sexual orientation.

Interviewed by RTL on Tuesday, Couderc said the school principal had told him that his sexual orientation did not "respect the values of the institution" and he was given his marching orders.

"Not only was I told that I no longer had the right to work at the school, I was also informed that I was to have absolutely no contact with any of the pupils," Couderc told RTL.

"It was as though homosexuality was being defined as something 'dangerous'," he said, adding that he had also been offered a therapy to "deal with the torment of his homosexuality," - a proposition he declined preferring instead to look for another post in the public education sector.

Asked by the regional daily Dernières Nouvelles d'Alsace (DNA) why he had waited 10 months to take his case to Halde, Couderc replied that he had been depressed after losing his job but had been motivated into taking action after he had seen a poster advertising Daniel's end-of-year festival.

"The motto was 'Vivre ensemble' (living together)," he told DNA.

"When I saw that, I knew I had to talk about it and they had to understand that what they did was unacceptable."

Defending the school's decision, Luc Bussière, the president of the organisation which is responsible for running Daniel, told DNA that the school had "lost confidence" in Couderc after he moved in with his partner.

"It was a problem of trust," said Bussière.

"We knew of his sexuality and his inner struggles," he told the newspaper.

"But there's a differences between having such tendencies and assuming them in a school which promotes Christian ethics."

Amen?

Scientists confirm head belongs to French King, Henri IV

What a headline huh?

After nine months of running tests, a team of researchers in France has confirmed that a head that went missing a couple of centuries ago and only resurfaced recently is indeed that of one of the country's most respected Kings, Henri IV.

Henri IV, (from Wikipedia)

The tale of how the head went missing in the first place is of course bound up with French history.

The potted version for the non-history buffs (although those who wish to dig a little deeper could start off with Wikipedia).

Henri IV reigned from August 2, 1589 until May 14, 1610 and (among other things) is perhaps best remembered for enacting the Edict of Nantes which "guaranteed religious liberties to French Protestants (Huguenots)" which had been under threat from the country's Catholics during the Wars of Religion from 1562 until 1598.

As was the fate of many a French monarch, Henri IV was assassinated, and buried in the Basilique Saint-Denis, a Cathedral in what is now a northern suburb of Paris and one that became the final resting place of French Kings and Queens throughout the centuries.

And that was where his body (head included) lay until 1793 when French revolutionaries, not satisfied with having executed the then-monarch Louis XVI, ran amok at the Basilique, opening tombs and reburying royal bodies in mass graves nearby.

It was then, of course, that the head of Henri IV did its disappearing act only apparently to resurface in the hands of a private collector (yikes, there really are such people) recently (remember this is the potted version) and be put up for rigorous testing by a team led by Philippe Charlier, a forensic medical examiner and osteo-archaeologist at the University hospital Raymond-Poincaré in the Parisian suburb of Garches.

Those tests included "radiocarbon dating with 2-sigma calibration" (are you paying attention?) which, according to a paper published by Charlier's team in the latest edition of the British Medical Journal (BMJ) "yielded a date of between 1450 and 1650 nicely bracketing the year of Henri IV’s death" (oh the joys of scientists writing papers for other scientists).

In fact for the full explanation of how they used a combination of "anthropological, paleopathological, radiological, forensic, and genetic techniques" to confirm that the embalmed head was indeed that of Henri IV, take a wander over to the BMJ.

The long and the short of it is that the "irregular mole they identified on the right nostril and an earring hole in the right earlobe" both matched features seen in portraits and statues of Henry IV and the said head is that of Henri le Grand (one of his nicknames).

The timing of the confirmation couldn't have been better because, if you've been paying attention to your dates, this year marked the 400th anniversary of his death.

And plans are afoot (or should that read "can now go ahead"?) next year for a national Mass and funeral to be held for Henry IV, during which his head will once again be laid to rest alongside this country's former monarchs in the Basilique Saint-Denis.

A "holy game" of football

The club football season might be over in Europe and supporters of the so-called "beautiful game" preparing to follow the World Cup which kicks off in a couple of weeks time, but one important match remained to be played last weekend - the Clericus Cup final

As Agence France Presse (AFP) news agency reports, the match was in a sense the Catholic Church's very own version of the event to be hosted next month in South Africa and one in which "both teams could claim to have God on their side."

Players in prayer at the end of the match, Agence France Presse TV screen shot

The Clericus Cup is a tournament which has been contested annually since 2007 and is made up of teams whose players are all priests or seminarists from around the world attending the Vatican City's Papal colleges.

Saturday's final (there are no tournament games on a Sunday) was a repeat of last year's with holders Redemptoris Mater taking on rivals Pontifical North American College; the Italians once again running out the winners with the only goal of the game.

While the president of the Cup, Monsignor Claudio Paganini admitted that there had been several on-the pitch incidents and that perhaps not all the players had always "behaved entirely correctly" the competition had shown another side of the Catholic Church - away from the scandals that have dominated recent news stories.

http://www.france24.com/fr/20100530-football-avant-le-mondial-leglise-catholique-a-deja-son-champion

"At a time when the Church is being attacked over issues of paedophilia we're showing here how games and the body are values and not limitations," he told AFPTV.

"The human body should be used to give glory to God, not for acts of deviance."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlDslMckFCg

Redemptoris Mater have appeared in each of the four finals that have taken place since the Cup began in 2007.

The only time they have failed to lift the trophy was in 2008 when they lost out to Mater Ecclesiae.

No baptism for Kenzo

More problems of a different sort for the Catholic church here in France. A priest has refused to baptise a two-and-a-half-year-old boy because the parents hadn't sent their two older children for religious education after they had been baptised.

The parents of little Kenzo had set July 3 as the date to have their son baptised.

But when the mother, Chrystèle Fernandez, went along to discuss the final arrangements with the priest in the parish of Saint-Jean-Lavérune in the south of France, things didn't quite go as she had hoped.

Instead she was told that Kenzo's baptism couldn't go ahead.

The reason she was given, according to the regional daily Midi Libre, was that the priest, Paul Roudier, wasn't happy that one of her other sons wasn't receiving religious instruction.

"The priest asked me whether my 10-year-old was attending catechism classes," she told the newspaper.

"When I said that we had offered him the opportunity to go but he had refused, he (Father Roudier) said that under such circumstances he couldn't go ahead with Kenzo's baptism," she continued.

Even though Fernandez explained that she had not wanted to force her eldest son to do something against his will but had left the choice up to him, Father Roudier remained resolute in turning down the request for Kenzo to be baptised.

He admitted that the decision has been an "unpleasant one" to take, but for him baptism represented the "starting point" and there was a responsibility afterwards "to educate".

"If you want a child to discover what the church has to offer then you have to give him a taste of it," he said.

"And sometimes that has to be an obligation," he continued.

A disappointment as far as Fernandez is concerned who had hoped that the Catholic church would be a little more flexible in its decision-making.

"We're not regular church-goers but we're still believers," she said.

"Now it'll just have to be up to Kenzo to decide what he wants to later."

The case is far from being an isolated one here in France.

In early February this year, according to the national daily Aujourd'hui en France, parents of a 10-month-old child in the town of Evry, just on the outskirts of the French capital, were told that their latest addition to the family couldn't be baptised because his three older siblings "hadn't been receiving religious instruction" and the parents "were not regular church-goers."

And just a couple of weeks later national radio reported the case of a baby girl in the small town of Saint-Jean-de-Boiseau in western France who was refused a baptism because her older sister once again hadn't been "enrolled in religious instruction classes."

"Top of the Pops" for France's singing priests

"Holy voices singing eternal hits" goes the commercial for the album that is currently taking France by storm.

Move over Lady Gaga. Sorry Black Eyed Peas. And tough for homegrown French talent such as Christophe Maé.

This week's best selling album here in France is none other than "Spiritus Dei" by a group called "Les Prêtres".

Given the name, there are no prizes perhaps for guessing that the group is made up of two real-life priests, Jean-Michel Bardet and Charles Troesch and a seminarist, Dinh Nguyen Nguyen.

A Boys Band with a difference, if you will, and the brainchild of the Bishop of Gap in the southeast of the country, Jean-Michel di Falco.

Now at this point you might be thinking that the album is an ecclesiastical blockbuster - so-to-speak - of hymns or, at the very least, religious music.

And while it's true that you'll find recognisably spiritual tracks such as "Ave Maria", "Ave verum corpus" or the French Christmas carol "Il est né le divin enfant", the trio also decided to tackle some modern standards, which perhaps accounts for the popularity of the album.

There's Jacques Brel's "Quand on a que l'amour" which has been covered by innumerable artists down the years including inevitably perhaps Céline Dion.

The album also includes a version of "Amazing Grace", Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" is given an airing and there's "L'envie d'aimer" from the appropriately-named 2000 French musical "Dix Commandements".

All right so the idea might not have been entirely original and Bishop di Falco freely admits that the inspiration for the album was the success of the similarly-named Irish counterparts "The Priests".

It came during a brainstorming session he had with a close friend, the popular 1980's French singer Didier Barbelivien, as to how to raise funds for a school in Madagascar and the construction of a church in the diocese.

After suggesting making an album, Barbelivien then contacted TF1 Musique, who apparently "loved the idea", the Bishop went about recruiting in his diocese and....well the rest is history.

A platinum disc for sales of more than 100,000 copies in France, an appearance on a popular national television show and now a number one album.

Of course the whole success has been helped by the backing of TF1, this country's most-viewed private TV channel, which has regularly aired a clip of the very album it produced.

While surprised by the popularity of the album, the Bishop remains suitably modest about reaching top spot in the charts.

"Naturally we're very happy but at the same time we don't really understand what it all means," he said on national radio.

"But what I can say is that we've been receiving around 30 letters a day for the past couple of weeks from people expressing how much joy and hope the album has given them," he continued.

"And that in itself has to be a sign that the whole project fits in with our calling."

Riding on the wave of success, a series of concerts has also been scheduled in three cities around the country in May and June...in churches of course.



Clip France Bleu "LES PRETRES - SPIRITUS DEI"
envoyé par francebleu. - Regardez plus de clips, en HD !

McDonald's withdraws blasphemous Happy Meal

Hamburgers and religion have proven to be a less-than-tasty combination here in France recently although they've certainly been making the news.

After the French fast food chain Quick sparked a row which took on political dimensions following its decision in November last year to take non-halal products and pork off the menu in eight of its 350 branches, McDonald's has found itself the target of criticism.

And at the centre of the controversy has been its Happy Meal for children, which has upset a Catholic priest in the southwestern département of Tarn, led him to call for a local boycott of the fast food giant and brought about a swift reaction and an apology from McDonald's itself.

It's not actually the food as such that has upset Xavier Cormary, the priest in the town of Saint-Suplice, although there are certainly those who would question its nutritional value and place within this country's cuisine. But that's quite another issue.

Instead it was the booklet that accompanied each meal and which contained a number of games and puzzles, one of which he and some of his parishioners found "bordering on the blasphemous".

The game in question shows a design, taken from the popular cartoon series and books for children, Kid Paddle, in which readers have to try to break a code to discover what a bishop is saying as he addresses a couple about to be married.

Harmless enough in the simple description perhaps, except the bishop, who along with the couple is drawn in the form of a misshapen potato, is holding a crucifix depicting Jesus as a frog, and his words, once the code is deciphered read, ""Do you accept to take Suzanne, here present, for dinner?"



Father Comary was incensed when he was made aware of the puzzle at the end of February and, being more than a little Internet-savvy, wrote exactly what he thought about it on his blog.

"Once again, the Christian faith is ridiculed," he wrote. "Marriage is violated, the bishop is mocked, and the crucifix is represented in a form that is offensive to beliefs that are at the heart of our Christian faith."

The 37-year-old didn't stop there though.

He called on parishioners to boycott branches of the fast food chain in the nearby towns of Gaillac and Lavaur, wrote directly to McDonald's France management and the publishers of the game and the original comic books.

And all to good effect it would appear, because according the local newspaper, La Dépêche, not only has he received an apology, but the booklet containing the game that had "caused offence" has been withdrawn.

Nathalie Febvre from McDonald's France customer services reportedly sent an email to the priest earlier this month in which she stressed there had been "no wish in any way to offend the sensibilities of its customers," and that "McDonald's would no longer be distributing Kid Paddle at its restaurants."

The end of a childhood horror story for eight brothers and sisters

It's a shocking story and one which hit the headlines on Tuesday afternoon here in France.

A couple have been taken into police custody and charged with neglecting and mistreating their children after police and social services discovered the wretched conditions in which they were living.

The case first came to the attention of the local authorities just last Friday in Banyuls-sur-Mer in the southwestern French department of Pyrénées Orientales.

One of their children was seen rummaging through dustbins. The 16-year old was bleeding from the head and visibly emaciated.

Passers-by informed the police and when questioned, he explained that he had been hit on the head with a pot by his mother and beaten on the arms with a stick.

He had been punished, he told the police, because he had stolen a lump of sugar.

The boy weighed just 32 kgs (71 lbs) for 1,65m (five feet and five inches) and was immediately taken to hospital for treatment.

When the police arrived at his home to question his parents, they found an apartment almost bare of furniture according to the regional daily newspaper, Le Midi Libre.

There were no beds, just covers that served as mattresses. The kitchen and the sitting room were locked and the fridge was virtually empty.

There were also seven other children in the apartment - one boy and six girls - ranging in age from seven to 17. They all showed scars and traces from having been regularly beaten.

Two of the girls, aged 13 and 15, weighed just 22kgs (48lbs) and were immediately taken to a nearby hospital.

The remaining children were taken to a foster home and on the way "the police stopped at a fast food restaurant and the eyes of the children lit up as though they had discovered another world," is how Le Midi Libre describes their journey out of hell.

The parents were immediately taken into police custody.

The father, a 50-year-old devout Moslem, reportedly told investigators that for him the condition of his children was a sign of the success of their education, and that he wanted to "purify them".

"This is a case of a family that lived outside of reality and totally cut off from the rest of society," Jean-Pierre Dreno, the public prosecutor of Perpignan told reporters.

"The father's behaviour was exactly as one would expect from someone who treated his own family as a sect," he added.

Only three of the children were sent to school, the rest had dropped out once they had reached puberty because the education authorities refused to allow them to attend wearing headscarves.

Under French law there is a ban on the wearing of conspicuous religious symbols in public schools at both primary and secondary levels;

"There had been a conflict in the past between the mother and the school authorities especially about absenteeism " said Dreno.

"The only affair that we had in this department in 2003 about the wearing of the headscarves at school involved this family and theoretically the children were following lessons by correspondence," he added

The father and his 49-year-old wife have been charged with putting at risk the health and lives of their children and failing to provide them with the appropriate education and security.

They also have a ninth child who is no longer living at home.

French Catholics split over Pope's comments

Comments made last week by Pope Benedict XVI, when he rejected the use of condoms to fight Aids, continue to make the headlines here in France.

First came political criticism from the foreign ministry, which said it expressed "its very strong concern about the consequences of the statements."

Then there was the decision by French television to carry the on-screen logo of Sidaction, the HIV-Aids awareness campaign, during its weekend programming - including for the first time the retransmission of all religious services.

Now it's the turn of the French in general and more specifically the country's Catholics to express their disquiet, with the release of two separate polls this past weekend.

And, if the polls are to be believed, the results show that they seem to be having some problems coming to terms with what the Pope said.

The first was published in the national daily, Le Parisien, on Saturday and conducted on the newspaper's behalf by Conseils-Sondages-Analyses, CSA.

According to the poll 57 per cent of the French in general - regardless of religious belief - have a "negative opinion" of the Pope following his statements.

Perhaps even more surprising though is the number of French Catholics who hold that point of view - 55 per cent according to the survey with only 29 per cent saying that they held a "positive opinion" of the Pope.

Admittedly the figures looked a little different when those who said they regularly attended church services were asked with 52 per cent saying they still held an overall "good opinion" of the Pope as opposed to 28 per cent who didn't.

Another poll in the national weekly Le Journal du Dimanche, and conducted by L’Institut français d’opinion publique, IFOP went even further and asked France's Catholics whether they thought the Pope should resign or retire.

While 54 per cent said he shouldn't, 43 per cent thought he should although the trend was reversed when asked whether he represented the values of the Catholic church - 49 per cent saying he didn't as opposed to 22 per cent who thought he did.

On issues which reflect the changes there have been within French society, there was also the widely held opinion (again among French Catholics) that the Church had to modify both its statements and position in several areas including contraception (83 per cent), abortion (77 per cent) and homosexuality (69 per cent).

Of course opinion polls are always open to interpretation and there's no disputing that they can also be influenced by those commissioning them and the composition of the questions.

But a similar survey also conducted on behalf of Le Parisien last September, perhaps puts the most recent ones into perspective.

It was carried out just before the Pope's three-day visit to this France when millions turned out to celebrate Mass both in the capital Paris and later in Lourdes in the south-west of the country.

At that time, among the French in general, 53 per cent of those questioned said they had a "positive opinion" of Benedict XVI.

Around 51 per cent of France's 63 million population say they are Catholic.

Soeur Emmanuelle is dead

Tributes have been paid across France after the news that one of the country's most remarkable and much-loved women is dead.

Soeur Emmanuelle, who dedicated her life to helping the poor and was often compared to Mother Therese. died on Monday morning at the age of 99.

She died peacefully in her sleep at the home where she was being cared for in Callian in the south of France, the president of the association "Asmae-Association Sœur Emmanuelle" Trao Nguyen announced.

The comparison to Mother Therese is one Soeur Emmanuelle - born Madeleine Cinquin in Brussels, Belgium - repeatedly downplayed with the comment that she was "no saint".

But hers was a rich life that included setting up an association for unmarried mothers, working in Turkey and Tunisia and then at the age of 63 in the slums of Cairo, where she remained for 21 years.

Even when she returned to France at the age of 85 - supposedly to retire - she continued working with the homeless, and made a number of television appearances to promote humanitarian causes.

For the past decade she spent most of her time in a retirement home in Callian, receiving visitors but not leaving the village.

Apart from many memories, Soeur Emmanuelle also leaves behind a series of books including one published in August "J'ai 100 ans et je voudrais vous dire " (I'm 100 years old and I would like to tell) in which she not only outlined what she considered her many faults but also left us with the thought that, "Without helping others and without sharing, humanity cannot progress."

The French foreign minister, Bernard Kouchner was among one of the first to respond to the news.

"My Soeur Emmanuelle is dead, she would have been 100 years old, always young, admirable and beautiful, and I have a very heavy heart" he said in a statement.

"I always remember what a joy it was to work alongside her. I will always keep the memory of the life force she gave and her ability to make mountains move," he added.

"A woman of the streets. An incredible force who would tenderly tell you off."

Even though she was sometimes at odds with the conventional thinking of the Catholic church - she spoke out in favour of the clergy being allowed to marry and even wrote to Pope John-Paul II telling him she thought contraception should be allowed - the Vatican was also quick to respond to news of her death.

A spokesman for the Vatican, Father Federico Lombardi, said the church had lost "one if the greatest examples of Christian charity."

"Her life showed how Christian charity could succeed regardless of national, racial or religious differences," he said.

Soeur Emmanuelle made many appearances on French television and radio over the years, and as recently as July in a poll of this country's most popular people, she ranked sixth.

There is simply too much to say about an exceptional woman who made such a difference to the lives of so many, and televised tributes have already been announced for the coming days.

According to her wishes there will be a simple funeral ceremony in the village of Callian on Wednesday.

But perhaps the last word for the moment is best left with the woman herself.

"I've had a good and happy life," she said in her recent book

"I can only keep repeating that it's necessary to give others optimism , the will and love."


Addition

Soeur Emmanuelle truly was an extraordinary person, and neither this post nor the previous one I wrote really gets across just how remarkable she was.

Her spirit, energy and humanity were a lesson to us all - regardless of religion, nationality or race. And that has been a point made time and time again throughout the course of today (Monday) here in France.

She spoke and appealed to generations of French, and they appeared to listen to her. She addressed everyone, French presidents, clergy, the homeless, intellectuals - you name it - in the informal "tu" form, and cajoled, bullied, smiled and won her way into the hearts of an enormous number of people.

In a statement on Monday, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy said (and I paraphrase)
"She was a Sister to us all, a woman of the highest conviction, but also one of action, for whom charity actually meant doing something concrete for the benefit of humanity worldwide."

Politicians from Left to Right and religious leaders here in France have either issued statements or spoken to press, radio and television today about what she meant to the French and world at large.

Lunchtime TV news was dedicated in the most part to her death, and doubtless the story will lead the prime time news this evening on both the country's major national channels. There are further special programmes scheduled for the coming weeks and in particular for November 16, when she would have celebrated her 100th birthday.

Vatican rejects French nominated gay ambassador

Diplomatic relations between France and the Vatican aren't exactly at an all-time high.

In fact it wouldn't be unfair to call them somewhat strained - and that's in spite of the Papal visit to this country last month.

Twice France has attempted to appoint a new ambassador to the Holy See, and twice the Vatican's perhaps less than enlightened response has been a polite but definite refusal.

The post became vacant last December, coincidentally on the eve of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy's visit to the Vatican, with the death of the then ambassador Bernard Kessedjian.

Paris - or more accurately, the French foreign ministry, looked around for a replacement and came up earlier this year with the 61-year-old writer and journalist, Denis Tillinac.

On the face of it Tillinac seemed like a sound choice. He was a close friend of the former French president, Jacques Chirac, and of course was a devout Catholic.

Just one slight problem - he had been married, divorced and was now remarried. So the Vatican said something along the lines of "grazie, ma non grazie" (although probably much more diplomatically) and rejected his nomination.

So the search began again and at one point there was talk of putting forward another writer - this time in the shape of the internationally acclaimed political historian, Max Gallo.

But finally the French settled for Jean-Loup Kuhn-Delforge, this country's former ambassador to Bulgaria, and currently head of the Consular Affairs Directorate at the foreign ministry in Paris, and a career diplomat.

But this is where you might be forgiven for thinking that perhaps Paris knew what the outcome of his nomination might be from the start.

For although Kuhn-Delforge is a practising catholic and has been in a long and stable relationship, it's with another man. He's openly gay.

So it perhaps came as no surprise last week that, as reported in the Italian daily, Corriere della Sera, the latest French attempt to fill the vacant post was once again politely but most firmly rejected.

Now it might strike you odd that the Pope might be able to sanction visiting a head of state who has been married three times and divorced twice - as he did just last month, but has a problem with that same country's diplomatic representation "back home" being either divorced or gay, but that's the way it is.

So France is scouting around for another possibility and has, according to the national daily Le Figaro, come up with the current ambassador to Russia, Stanislas Lefebvre.

The 61-year-old is married (and has remained so to just the one woman) with four children, so should by all accounts fit the bill.

But there again, there's no telling.

Regional president shocked by email requesting employees' religion

France's interior minister, Michèle Alliot-Marie, has opened an internal enquiry after one of the country's 26 regional councils received a request from the intelligence service for information on the religion of its employees.

The president of the east-central French regional authority of Rhône-Alpes, Jean-Jack Queyranne, said he had found the request "scandalous."

"Would you be in a position to inform me whether among your personnel you have members of staff whose religion is other than Christian?" was one of the questions received last month by the human resources department of the regional government of Rhône-Alpes.

"If the answer is yes, could you tell me whether some of them have requested special working hours to be able to practise their religion?" was another..

They were in an email, sent by the region's intelligence service, which claimed that it was part of a study being carried out on behalf of the Association des maires de France (French mayors association) an umbrella group which represents the country's almost 36,000 mayors.

It was a claim officially denied by the association.

As soon as he learnt of it, Queyranne, quickly went public and demanded an explanation from Alliot-Marie.

On Thursday he told prime time news on national television that such a request not only ran contrary to the constitution here in France - where there's a strict separation of church and state - but also broke the principles and rules governing those employed in public service.

He said it also gave the impression that the regional government was categorising its employees - civil servants - according to religious beliefs.

"When people come here to work here we simply don't ask them what their beliefs are, or whether they practise this or that religion," he said.

"There has been a huge controversy surrounding the introduction of Edvige (a centralised electronic database to hold details of people considered likely to breach public order) and the government has been forced to backtrack on requesting information on sexual orientation and health," he added.

"And now we're being asked to provide information on the faith of our employees. It's scandalous."

In an attempt to calm fears that the email had been an attempt by the state to try to gather data regarding its employees' religion, the director of the region's intelligence service, Jacques Signourel, insisted that it had been sent by a person working in his department who had taken it upon himself to make the request.

"It would appear to have been the action of one individual who didn't get the permission of his superiors before sending the email," he said

"Similarly he had no instructions to do what he did," he added.

And Gerard Gachet, a spokesman for the interior ministry, said that the request had been both "unacceptable" and "inappropriate" and that the person who had sent it would now face a disciplinary hearing.

But according to France 2 television, Rhône-Alpes had confirmed that it was not the only regional council to have received such a request for information.

The timing of this latest disclosure could not have been worse for Alliot-Marie, who was forced to revise plans for the introduction of Edvige last month after the president, Nicolas Sarkozy, intervened in the ongoing row.

Thousands of French have signed an online petition to the database, which initially included proposals to centralise information on political, business and religious leaders, government employees and even children as young as 13. Youngsters who perhaps had no criminal record but whose activities and social milieu leaves them "susceptible" to becoming members of gangs.

The Conseil d'État - the country's equivalent of the Supreme Court - is due to rule at the end of December on the legality of Edvige.

Tom Cruise proposed as a French government minister?

There’s nothing like a good political spat to clear the air, especially at election time, and that’s exactly what France is being treated to at the moment with claim following counter-claim and a great deal of column inches to boot. And all that just as the country is gearing up to next month’s local elections.

It involves a little-known political figure, in the shape of Emmanuelle Mignon, and the weekly news, celebrity and leisure magazine, Vendredi, Samedi, Dimanche (VSD).

Mignon, who is a confidante of the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy, and his chief of staff, is reported by VSD to have told the magazine that the sects or cults – take your pick, depending on how you translate the word – are a “non-problem” in France.

In an interview published in VSD this week, Mignon also suggests we should question exactly what sort of danger movements such as Scientology actually represents.

Mignon claims she was misquoted. VSD is standing its ground and insists that’s exactly what she said.

And so beginneth the polemic in much of the French media.

While admitting that she’s not actually that familiar with Scientology, Mignon has insisted that cults in general should be investigated to determine whether they indeed pose a threat. For her apparently, either an organisation is dangerous and abuses the psychological weakness of certain people, in which case it should be banned. Or it represents no particular menace to the public order and should have the right to exist in peace.

In an attempt to reduce the backlash there has been against what she apparently never said, Mignon successfully fuelled more angered debate after granting an interview with the national daily newspaper, Le Figaro.

In it she attacked the “Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaries” or Interministerial Mission for Monitoring and Combating Cultic Deviances (Miviludes) as nothing more than a government agency that since its first incarnation back in 1995 had faithfully produced its annual report and not much else. As far as she was concerned the list was “scandalous”

The government, she revealed, wanted to turn Miviludes into something much more effective than a lot of “bla bla” by bringing it under the auspices of the interior ministry and having it work more closely with the police and judiciary.

Clearly being “scandalised” was not just the preserve of Mignon’s as far as many were concerned and there was outrage from across the political spectrum – including many from within Sarkozy’s own centre-right Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) – at her comments.

The former (UMP) prime minister, Jean-Pierre Raffarin, criticised her for raising the issue in what is after all the run-up to next month’s local elections – a common cry to be heard over most contentious issues at the moment.

And another member of member of parliament for UMP, Claude Goasguen, said that if Mignon’s boss, Sarkozy, had given her the green light to broach the subject, it was perhaps a somewhat Machiavellian strategy to try to divert attention away from the debate surrounding his failed promise to increase the purchasing power of the French.

Disorder within the ranks was met with similar fury from opposition politicians. François Bayrou, leader of the centre-right Mouvement Démocrate (MoDem) was appalled at the apparent attempt to “rehabilitate Scientology” and another prominent MoDem candidate in the local elections in Paris, Corinne Lepage, mused rhetorically if somewhat ironically on national television whether the intention was not to create a “junior ministerial post for Tom Cruise, Scientology and the development of cults in France.”

The Socialist party was also pretty damning of Mignon’s remarks, calling on Sarkozy to clarify exactly where he stands on her comments and say whether he approves. If he doesn’t, then as far as the Socialists are concerned, he should take the necessary steps and fire her.

All eyes and ears are now on Mignon who if she really insists she has been misquoted, has both the know-how and the chance to slap VSD with a legal suit. Somehow it’s unlikely to go that far.