French Court Orders Removal of Virgin Mary Statue

A French court ordered on Friday the removal of a statue of the Virgin Mary from a small town on the grounds that its display violates the separation of church and state.

The court’s order ended four decades of the statue’s display at a crossroads in La Flotte, France, a town of about 2,800 people, according to Agence France Presse (AFP). A local family originally erected the statue after World War II in gratitude for a father and son’s safe return from the war, the outlet reported. A private garden first housed the statue, until the family gifted it to the town and saw its placement at the crossroads in 1983.

The statue sustained damage after it was struck by a passing car in 2020, the outlet noted. Its restoration included the addition of a platform, a move which drew the attention of of an organization that advocates for the defense of secularity. La Libre Pensee 17 filed a complaint, citing a 1905 French law that forbids the display of religious monuments in public places.

Mayor Jean-Paul Heraudeau appealed instead to the statue’s “historical heritage,” calling the complaint “ridiculous,” AFP quoted. It should be regarded as “more of a memorial than a religious statue,” the mayor said.

While the court acknowledged the town’s intentions, its ruling favored the argument of the Virgin Mary as an “important figure in Christian religion,” giving it “an inherently religious character,” according to AFP. In accordance with the court’s order, the town has six months to remove the statue.  

Toad Breaks Silence

Ecuadoran biologist Jorge Brito was trekking through the forest when he heard what he thought was the chirp of a cricket.

What he found changed a century of scientific belief.

"At first I thought it was some sort of cricket out there vocalizing, but then I paid attention," said Brito, from Ecuador's national biodiversity institute.

It was, in fact, a type of brown toad with rough skin called Rhinella festae that has a prominent nose and had been considered mute since it was first discovered 100 year ago.

"While it did not inflate its vocal sack, you could see a small flicker" on its chin, said Brito.

He caught it and took it to a laboratory to study with his colleague Diego Batallas.

"The first time I heard it, I said: Wow, that's not the sound of a toad, it's like a little bird," Batalla told AFP.

The toad, which measures between 45 and 68 millimeters in length, lives in the mountainous Ecuadoran regions of Cutucu and Condor, extending over the border into the Amazonian region of Peru.

The discovery was first reported in February in Neotropical Biodiversity magazine, where Brito and Batallas described the sound made by the toad.

"It is the first time this unique song of the Rhinella festae has been recorded and it's surprising because it shouldn't sing," Batallas told AFP.    READ MORE...