Academy Christiana. Behind this name, a Catholic movement of French identity youth, created in 2013. Its objective displayed on its leaflets: “to train the frameworks of the civilizational reconquest”. His presentation clip is unambiguous, considering in particular that “the French are at war” and that’“there is no more elite, only parasites”. “We Catholics have received a call: to carry out a crusade, we are raising an army of builders”he says again.
Their leader, here he is: Victor Aubert, 33, professor of philosophy in a private establishment without contract, in the Orne. On social networks, he poses alongside figures from the far right, such as Alain Soral, convicted several times by the courts, in particular for contesting the existence of the Shoah. According to our information, several members of Academia Christiana would today be on file S, because of their radicalism.
The association federates its followers mainly via social networks. After a few attempts to approach, we are invited to a private meeting in a Parisian bar. Inside, about thirty participants, aged 20 to 25, students and young workers. They sometimes refer to dark times in French history: “For me, the best political regime we had in France in the 20th century was Vichy, notwithstanding the anti-Jewish laws and the collaboration”says one of them during our shoot.
In the rest of the conversation, he recognizes thatAcademy Christiana has anti-Semitic people in its ranks even though “it’s not the majority”. It is sometimes a question of radical Islam, which represents, for some, a source of inspiration: “The Salafists (…) they manage to have their community, they try to have their schools, they manage to isolate themselves from the world, to live only among themselves. We would like to do that, with a dimension more missionary”explains one of the participants.
For this, supporters of Academia Christiana even call for training in the handling of weapons. This is the case of a priest, very active on social networks, and who strikes a pose with a gun in his hand. We were able to meet him at a private party, alongside a far-right activist. It is a question that evening of defending the Catholic faith at all costs: “My goal is to encourage men, and women for that matter too, to know how to defend themselves. To take up arms, what… in a noble way”, he declares.
To develop its project, Academia Christiana is looking for a place. The association currently has only one postal address. But in recent years, a small episcopal city has been attracting more and more traditionalist Catholic families: it is Sées, a rural town of 4,500 inhabitants, in the Orne. And their arrival did not go unnoticed by the inhabitants we were able to interview.
Here, these Catholic families attend the Institut de la Croix des Vents, a private school without contract, which also houses a chapel where mass is given every Sunday in Latin, the priest with his back to the faithful, a setting specific to the liturgy Church traditionalist. It is also here that Victor Aubert teaches and that Academia Christiana meetings would have been held, even if the Institut de la Croix des Vents denies any link with the association.
Asked about the presence of members ofAcademy Christiana in his city, the mayor of Sées did not wish to speak in front of the camera, for fear that it would turn against him, but he specifies that “vigilance is required concerning AC which peddles a nauseating ideology”. Contacted, Victor Aubert replies that his movement is “a training institute which calls for no armed struggle and is foreign to any obsession with the Jews”.