Catholic leader blasts human rights court for absolving feminist who 'aborted' Jesus on altar: 'No legitimacy'
Catholic League president Bill Donohue said high court ruling exhibited 'hatred for our heritage'
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A U.S. Catholic leader called for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to be disbanded after it recently ruled in favor of a feminist who interrupted a Catholic Mass while topless and "aborted" Jesus on the altar before urinating on the floor.
Bill Donohue, president of the New York-based Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, blasted the European high court for exhibiting "an animus against Catholicism" with its Oct. 13 opinion awarding protester Eloïse Bouton with €9,800, according to a statement provided to Fox News Digital.
Bouton was bare-breasted and decked out in pro-choice slogans all over her body when she interrupted Christmas carols at Paris' famous Madeleine church in December 2013 and protested the Catholic Church's teachings against abortion by simulating an abortion of Jesus.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Wearing a crown of thorns and a blue veil to mock Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, Bouton carried pieces of animal livers to symbolize an aborted baby as she stood in front of the church altar and pretended to perform an "abortion" before urinating on the ground in front of the congregants.
Eloïse Bouton stands at the altar of the Madeleine church in Paris holding ox livers in protest against the Catholic Church's stance on abortion on Dec. 20, 2013. (Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images)
Written on Bouton's body at the time was the French phrase "344 salope," which translates to "344th slut," in reference to an open letter of 343 French women who admitted to having an abortion in 1971.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The Ukrainian group Femen, which Bouton used to be a member of, later celebrated the act on social media, writing "Christmas is canceled!" and that "the holy mother Eloïse has just aborted the embryo of Jesus on the altar of the Madeleine."
The church's priest filed a legal complaint against Bouton, who was found guilty by a French court of an unlawful "sexual display." She was sentenced to more than a month in prison and ordered to pay the church €2,000, a punishment France's highest court upheld until the ECHR determined that Bouton's right to free expression had been violated.
The exterior of Paris' L'église Sainte-Marie-Madeleine, known as the Madeleine Church in English. (Evan Lang via Getty Images)
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"This 2013 stunt occurred in France," said Donohue. "Now the European Court of Human Rights has taken her side, saying she was unjustly found guilty by a French court for an unlawful ‘sexual display.’ The high court said she was merely engaged in freedom of expression, and should never have been prosecuted. Indeed, it ordered the French courts to pay her more than $9,500 in damages, costs, and expenses."
Catholic League president Bill Donohue called for the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) to be disbanded after it ruled in favor of a feminist protester. (Catholic League)
Donohue went on to claim that Bouton's "moral depravity" and "blasphemous" protest, as well as the court's ruling in her favor, exhibit what Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI described as "the dictatorship of relativism" taking root in Western culture.
"What better example than this high court ruling?" asked Donohue.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Donohue said the former pope "also warned of the dangerous aspects of multiculturalism."
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Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI attends Mass prior to the opening of the Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica, formally starting the Jubilee of Mercy, at the Vatican on Dec. 8, 2015. (AP/Gregorio Borgia, File)
"It is not, as some have contended, a way of appreciating cultural diversity," said Donohue. "No, from the get-go it has been used as a club to destroy our Judeo-Christian heritage. The European Court of Human Rights proved its hatred for our heritage when it called this vicious act a ‘performance.’"
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"If this same woman walked into their court, half naked, ascended to the bench, with obscene slogans on her body condemning the judges by name, and then proceeded to defecate on pictures of their mother, would these open-minded wizards call this freedom of expression?" the league president continued.
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Wearing a crown of thorn and a blue veil to mock Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, Bouton carried animal livers to symbolize an aborted baby at the church's altar. (Miriam Almeida / EyeEm via Getty Images)
Donohue claimed further proof regarding the ECHR's alleged anti-Catholic animus showed when it upheld the criminal conviction of a lecturer in Austria who characterized Islam founder Mohammed's sexual relationship with 9-year-old girl Aisha as pedophilic.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, awarded protester Eloïse Bouton with €9,800, arguing her simulated abortion Jesus on a Catholic altar was free expression. (Henryk Sadura via Getty Images)
"This court has no legitimacy," Donohue concluded. "It should be disbanded."
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The ECHR did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on Donohue's statement.