Philippe Darantière, president of Notre-Dame de Chrétienté, the association that organizes the traditionalist pilgrimage from Paris to Chartres, has denounced a «methodical political operation» against the movement in an interview given to Tribune Chrétienne and published this Monday, November 9. Darantière is responding to an investigation by the left-wing Catholic magazine Le Cri, which in its most recent issue claims that the far right has infiltrated the Church in France and explicitly cites the organization.
According to Darantière, the report accuses the pilgrimage of being a platform for «logorrhée politique et antirévolutionnaire,» that is, political and counter-revolutionary verbiage. The president rejects this description and states that Notre-Dame de Chrétienté is not a party or a partisan group, but a reality with a spiritual vocation. In his view, those who present the march through a political lens have never walked with the chapters, and he recalled that the day consists of the rosary, penance, and a march of about one hundred kilometers over three days, with a notable presence of young people and families.
A militant network behind the report, according to Darantière
The interviewee maintains that Le Cri acts as a media hub for a militant network and that the dossier was a commission funded by the Fonds pour une presse libre, an organization that, he said, also supports Mediapart. Darantière also links Edwy Plenel, the historic head of that outlet, to a Trotskyist past in the Ligue communiste révolutionnaire. He also claims that the magazine’s editorial office is located in the premises of CERAS, in Aubervilliers, a center dependent on the Society of Jesus.
For Darantière, the true political instrumentalization of the faith is precisely in Le Cri’s enterprise. In this regard, he denounced a double standard: while the Chartres pilgrims are criticized, he said, other left-leaning groups act with a political orientation in ecclesial or public spaces.
Examples of «double standard» and defense of the social kingship of Christ
Among the examples, he cited the collective Lutte et Contemplation, which distributed leaflets at the Fête de l’Humanité on September 12; the Catholic Worker Action (ACO), mentioned by the investigation itself for its commitment to anti-fascist unions; and a political banner displayed as the popemobile passed during the visit of Leo XIV to Paris. He also referred to Guillaume Dezaunay, from the Anastasis collective, and the plans for «civil disobedience» for 2027 that the Le Cri journalist mentions in her work.
The investigation also presents Father Matthieu Raffray as an «identitarian» figure and links Notre-Dame de Chrétienté to major Catholic gatherings such as the Mission Congress or the Frat. Darantière, for his part, defended the «esprit de chrétienté» and the «royauté sociale du Christ» as a teaching of the Church’s social doctrine and not as a political project.
The next pilgrimage, at Pentecost 2027
The next edition of the pilgrimage will be held at Pentecost 2027, from May 15 to 17. This year’s edition, held from May 23 to 25, brought together about 20,000 pilgrims, according to InfoVaticana in its coverage of the preparation of the march.