A non-contracted Catholic school intends to set up in September in the small town of Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne (Ain), but this old-fashioned educational project based on religion arouses criticism and concerns among the local population.
“What signal does this send for the future of our youth?” Vincent, a 47-year-old father, can’t believe that a traditionalist Catholic school is planning to set up in his small town of Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne (Ain) at the start of the school year in September, “with the approval of the public authorities”.
Cooking, sewing, knitting, floral art workshops… The Pauline Marie Jaricot educational center, reserved for secondary school girls (middle and high school), provides “the comprehensive training of young girls so that they become free and responsible women with a view to Heaven”, according to the educational project detailed on its website. All this for €350 per month in tuition fees.
“Prepare for the education of their feminine sensitivity”
An educational project which gives pride of place to Christian formation, the learning of knowledge, artistic culture, surpassing oneself and good spirit. According to Le Parisien, the establishment also intends to “prepare young girls for the full development of their talents and the education of their feminine sensitivity”.
“It’s worrying because this school illustrates the confinement of people within themselves. This is not my vision of education or openness to the world,” laments Vincent, executive in the public and father of a teenage daughter he would not like to see enter such an establishment.
From the next school year, the young girls will move into the 440 m² of the former premises of the Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne museum which belong to the municipality. On the program: no more than 10 students per class, and “impeccable uniforms” must be respected. According to the internal regulations, students will not be allowed pants but only a long skirt or dress and high socks. They must have their heads covered in holy places, their shoulders covered on a daily basis and low necklines will be prohibited.
“All these rules and this vision of things… it’s not very appealing to young people and even less so to women,” reacts Vincent, an indignant resident of the town. “We already have Catholic establishments in Châtillon, but this is another dimension. Personally, I would not at all see myself involving my daughter in a project that advocates such a family model.”
“It raises a lot of questions”
It was the local apolitical group La Libre Pensée, “which claims to be based on reason and science”, which first sounded the alarm in a letter to municipal councillors at the end of May. In this letter, which BFMTV.com was able to consult, the movement deplores a project which “propagates retrograde ideas hindering freedom of thought”.
The movement also denounces the links of co-founder Jacques Madi with the fundamentalist Catholic movement Civitas, dissolved by state decree of October 4, 2023, for “anti-Semitic and Islamist remarks as well as “tributes to figures of collaboration or Nazi regime”. La Libre Pensée now plans to request an audience with the mayor in order to clarify the genesis of this establishment project, which according to it was decided “by the mayor himself, without prior consultation with the municipal council”.
“This raises a lot of questions,” points out a member of the association, contacted by BFMTV.com. “The mayor signed a lease with them, and the population was never informed why. But when you are a landlord, you are responsible.”
The diocese of Belley-Ars distances itself
Mayor Patrick Mathias, whom we contacted several times, did not respond to our requests. But the founder of this educational project, Thérèse Madi, tells BFMTV.com that she was far from expecting such reactions when launching her project. “There is no need for controversy: it is an establishment which will respond to a local need and everything has been done perfectly to the point, in agreement with the town hall that we met and which continues to support us today. ‘today’.
“This controversy is a storm in a jar! After all, why not such an educational project?” asks the founder, who assures that “the teachings of the common core of knowledge” will be respected. She also believes that “families who do not like it will always have a plethora of mixed establishments at their disposal.”
This 40-year-old woman, who admits to having been inspired by the educational institutions of the Legion of Honor in Paris to build her “alternative education” project over the last two years, confirms to BFMTV.com that a defamation complaint was filed at the beginning of June against the La Libre Pensée movement, in connection with the letter written by the association.
For his part, the diocesan director of Catholic establishments Olivier Deltour is keen to clarify to La Voix de l’Ain that this new structure “will not be part of the Catholic education network” of Belley-Ars and “that there is no contact with the parish nor any partnership envisaged with the Saint Charles school-college in Châtillon-sur-Chalaronne”.
Jeanne Bulant Journalist BFMTV
