Also, many of the French are annoyed with the Catholic Church, not for genuinely religious reasons, but because of changes affecting popular customs. Other Catholics, especially among the older generation, are distressed by the more revolutionary changes within the Church, such as the abolition of meatless Fridays, the dropping of “saints,” the discarding of images, changes in the Mass and the clergy’s increasing involvement in politics. Nevertheless, a large number of people in France, particularly in the smaller towns and rural areas, still cling to the Roman Catholic religion for the traditional family rites.

On the other hand, the Catholic and Protestant Churches are falling into discredit through their unchristian teachings, practices and stand on many questions.

A young man in the western city of Nantes was an active member of a Catholic political movement. He even took part in a hunger strike in a church in Nantes, but he discovered that at night his fellow strikers were surreptitiously taking food. He eventually came in touch with young men who were Jehovah’s witnesses, studied the Bible, and now is a zealous full-time proclaimer of the good news.

Many other sincere Catholics who were church workers, members of the J.O.C. (Catholic Workers Youth Movement), catechists, and so forth, are at present active Witnesses. Among the French Witnesses today are several ex-nuns, ex-priests and even an ex-monk.

One Witness in the Paris area was a Carmelite nun in France, Egypt, Israel and Lebanon before finding the truth. Another Carmelite nun in the north of France, who had previously had contact with a Witness, asked a Benedictine theologian if it was true that we are (and do not have) a soul and that a fiery hell does not exist. He answered that this was true, but said that the Catholic Church could not change after teaching these dogmas for so many years. He counseled her to do a year’s theology “so as to understand these things.” But she had already “understood,” and she took necessary steps to quit religious orders and the Catholic Church in order to become a baptized follower, not of the Church, but of Jesus Christ.

An Augustinian nun quit after the “mother superior” had twice confiscated her Catholic Bible, had informed her that homosexual practices among nuns were preferable to their risking pregnancy with men, and after discovering that the school expenses for the children she was teaching were dishonestly being “blown up.”

All these were sincere Catholics who thought they were serving God “in spirit and truth.” (John 4:23, Jerusalem Bible) But sooner or later they discovered that their Church had neither God’s spirit nor his truth. Now they have been freed from false religion and are happy to share in the discipling work as true Christians.