FRANCE
Telegraph (UK)
By David Chazan, Paris3:27PM BST 16 Apr 2014
A private school in Paris is to be investigated after complaints from parents and teachers that it has fallen under the “fundamentalist” influence of the conservative Roman Catholic group Opus Dei.
Benoit Hamon, the education minister, has ordered an inspection of the Gerson school in the 16th arrondissement, saying there is evidence that pupils are being subjected to “an ideological war from another era”.
Members of a group called Alliance Vita or “Life Alliance”, which is close to Opus Dei, allegedly told sixth formers that women who used birth control were “semi-murderers” and abortion was “tantamount to murder”, according to a parent quoted in Le Parisien newspaper.
Alliance Vita said its members had been invited by the school to address pupils about topics including in-vitro fertilisation and surrogacy. “Some want the subject of abortion to remain taboo but abortion is a genuine issue in society that should be discussed with young people,” the group said in a statement.
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