(LifeSiteNews) — An October 2025 court order against the placement of a small wooden cross in a remote island village has spiraled into a fierce clash over faith, identity and secularism in France. Originating from a quiet local complaint, the dispute has drawn in the wider public, the island’s cardinal, national politicians and thousands rallying under the banners of tradition and religion.

In Quasquara, a mountain commune of barely 60 residents on the island of Corsica (where Napoleon Bonaparte was born and raised), locals alongside Catholics and conservatives have united in defense of what they insist is a sacred symbol of their heritage. Secular law-enforcers say the presence of the cross is illegitimate and incompatible with France’s irreligious political tradition in the modern era. Supporters claim the move to dismantle it resembles an effort to “erase Corsica” and destroy its “identity.”

The court’s decision comes despite significant opposition from local officials and overwhelming support from residents. It continues to ignite fierce public reaction, tapping veins of resentment over Paris’ authority and regional autonomy, French secularism and the place of religion in society – alongside inspiring complex questions of regional and civilizational identity.

Beginnings as a local dispute in a small village

The controversy began when in 2023 Marie-Noëlle Franck-Guiderdoni, an octogenarian resident of the village of Quasquara in the south of Corsica, filed a complaint to local authorities. A resident who moved to the small village in the early 2000s, Franck-Guideroni had been embroiled in local disagreement before and variously complained about church bells and a municipal notice board. Commentators have noted a history of prior disagreements between her and the mayor since she unsuccessfully contested a local election in 2012.

However, with her latest contention gaining national attention and passionate protest, even leading to her home reportedly receiving threats, Franck-Guideroni recently disclosed she “regretted the scale this story has reached.”

The cross Franck-Guideroni filed a complaint against is located on communal land by the side of a sloping country lane in the village. It had been erected the year before, in 2022. However, a 1905 French law – enacted during a period when laïcité (French radical secularist ideology) was in political ascendancy – prohibits “erecting or affixing any religious sign or emblem on public monuments or in any public place whatsoever.”

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However, the law also allowed for exceptions: “Monuments built before 1905 can be preserved. Religious symbols are permitted in cemeteries, places of worship or on private land. Restorations of ancient monuments are not considered new installations.”

From the time the complaint was filed, Paul-Antoine Bertolozzi, Quasquara’s mayor, has insisted that the cross is protected by such exemptions. “The story of the wayside cross is very simple,” he said in a speech by the cross in 2024. “It replaced another wayside cross that already existed at the request of Father Peretti. During the summer of 2022, when he was organizing processions … he asked me to erect a wayside cross in the commune of Quasquara. We took the time to find a craftsman, and the wayside cross was installed where we were standing.”

In the two years following Franck-Guideroni’s initial complaint, the cross’ plight had already galvanized support from the group Ghjuventù Indipendentista, a large assembly of students founded in 1999 who advocate for Corsican independence. Holding a rally beside the cross, representatives remarked: “Corsica, for centuries, has been deeply imbued with Christianity, which has left an indelible mark on its history, its culture and its identity. Removing a Catholic cross is much more than a simple physical gesture; it is erasing a symbol deeply rooted in our history.”

“Today, an entire region is rallying behind a symbol,” said a local resident at the time, commenting on widespread majority support for the cross in Corsica. “I can’t say it hasn’t grown enough, nor too much; it has exactly what was needed, with everything that will continue to happen.”

Escalation to battleground over secularism, regional autonomy, identity and culture

However, an October 10, 2025, ruling by the Bastia administrative court overturned the mayor’s refusal to remove the cross and led to a storm of further public reaction: a decision that was accused of being a secular attack upon religion, history and identity.

Although the court ruling did not necessarily require the cross be dismantled, it did rule that it was in breach of the 1905 law because it had been erected in a different location than the historical one it had replaced.

Sensitive to the strong negative public reaction, officials attempted to propose two solutions: one, that the cross be moved onto private land, or two, that the land presently held as public be privatized.

However, such proposals did little to prevent the dispute inflaming further anger. To protesters, this was an example of a state overstepping its authority and enforcing laws not recognized as authoritative or legitimate.

Within days, a petition in the cross’ defense had reached over 42,000 signatures – and two banners were hung on either side of it. One addressed the old lady who filed the complaint: “Go home. The cross belongs here.” The other asserted: “Removing the cross is erasing Corsica.”

Laurent Marcangeli, the mayor of Ajaccio, Corsica’s capital, had also involved himself in the controversy and pledged full support to Quasquara’s mayor and the cross’ defense. He expressed “total support,” situating his protest within the confines of French secularism by recalling that “the cross, before being religious, is a tradition of our villages.”

Femu a Corsica, the largest and ruling party on the island, moreover, made a public statement on X and complained that the court decision “fits within a rigid and conflictual secularist interpretation of the religion. It reflects a vision disconnected from our reality and foreign to our traditions.”

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“In Corsica,” the statement continued, “the profane and the sacred have coexisted for centuries and bear witness to a history, a culture, a deep-rooted identity. To seek to erase this reality in the name of a narrow conception of secularism would amount to denying an essential part of what we are collectively.”

Soon Quasquara’s cross had not only reached the highest level regionally but also nationally. The main and leading right-wing parties in France – Marine le Pen’s Rassemblement National and Eric Ciotti’s Union des droites pour la République symbolically chose Quasquara as a location to announce an alliance for the 2026 municipal elections.

The issue came to the attention of the Spanish-born bishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal Francois Bustillo, who refused to publicly support the cross’ defenders. He insisted “the cross should not be a cause of division.” He added: “We serve the cross, we do not use it.”

In the weeks since October 10, students in schools across Corsica – including Sartène, Corte and Bastia – have demonstrated under banners proclaiming “Terra corsa, terra christiani” (Corsican land; Christian land), demonstrating how the dispute has opened fundamental existential questions on how politics, religion and homeland intertwine.

Corsica’s Catholic and political context

The Quasquara cross controversy is situated within the context of deeper divisions and ongoing tensions in France’s political arrangements.

At the 2021 census, 47 percent of the French population identified as Catholic. However, in Corsica this is much higher, showing a misalignment with the continental mainland – 82 percent is the lowest recorded figure, while other sources suggest 90 percent of the island’s population of 355,000 claim Catholicism as their faith.

While France since its revolution at the end of the 18th century has explicitly enforced secularist measures in its policies, law and statecraft – removing religious symbols and inheritances from things recognized as “official” – the national anthem of Corsica is a hymn to the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Dio vi salvi Regina, “God Save You, Queen,” was written by a saint and has been strongly associated with and used by proponents of Corsican independence and autonomy since its secession from Genoa in 1735. Catholicism reaches deeply into Corsican culture, and Corsicans are known for ostentatiously and vibrantly celebrating religious festivals across the island, such as during Holy Week or at the Feast of the Assumption on August 15.

Corsica came under the rule of France in the 18th century but has had significant political disagreements with Paris for centuries. Today, while most Corsicans do not seek independence from France, greater autonomy and self-rule enjoys more popular support. In 2012, pollsters found only 12 percent of Corsicans wanted independence; however, support for further devolution was recorded at 51 percent.

Tensions surrounding civilizational, racial and religious conflict have been increasing in Corsica in recent years. Beginning in March 2022, the island gained international attention and witnessed over a month of severe unrest and violent protest after a prominent Corsican nationalist was beaten to death in his prison cell by an African immigrant for “disrespecting” Muhammad. Over 75 police officers and 25 civilians were injured in the protests which followed, during which the courthouse of Ajaccio along with several cars were torched while up to 12,000 protesters gathered in Colonna.

In September 2025, days before strong public reaction to the court order which ruled against the Quasquara cross, further anti-immigration protests took place after a 19-year-old was murdered by an illegal migrant in an event which was described as “a further sign of growing distrust between the central authorities and the island’s population.”

Pope Francis chose Corsica for what would be his final papal visit in 2024, long after the violence had subsided. During the visit, Francis praised Corsica as an example of “dynamic” secularism and “healthy laïcité” where he suggested popular piety co-existed within a secular framework harmoniously.

He did nevertheless use his platform during the Corsican visit to warn of the excesses of French secularism that has a “far too strong coloration inherited from the Enlightenment” – and which relegated the position of religion to that of a “subculture.” The Pope received sharp criticism in the left-wing secular press for his comments in defense of Corsica’s strong cultural Catholicism against French secularist ideology.