By Susan Brinkmann, OCDS Staff Journalist The French government has appointed a study to group to investigate an alarming increase in incidents of desecration aimed at Catholic churches and cemeteries. Kreuz.net is reporting that since January of this year, 323 Catholic churches and cemeteries have been desecrated throughout France. Until recently, the government has done little or nothing to alert the public to the violence. However, French Interior Minister Bruce Hortefeux recently spoke about the problem during a conference that occurred just after the discovery of almost 20 desecrated graves in a tiny town in Western France. Hotrefeux called the incidents "insufferable." Not long afterward, the chapel of Notre-Dame de Lourdes in the port city of Bastia on the Island of Corsica was damaged. Urine was found on and around the altar and images of the Blessed Mother were thrown into basins of water. The government finally responded by appointing a member of the French National Assembly, Claude Bodin, 58, to establish a study group to investigate the incidents, a move that was praised in the Vatican's October 1 issue of L'Osservatore Romano. Even atheists are speaking up about the increasing violence directed at Catholics. Bernard-Henri Lévy, a leading French intellectual,  vocally defended the Catholic Church and Pope Benedict XVI, saying the Church is "the most attacked religion in Europe." Speaking to the Spanish daily ABC, Levy lamented injustices against the Pope and said "The Pope's voice is extremely important, and we are very unjust to this Pope. I am not Catholic, but I think there is prejudice and especially major anti-clericalism that is taking on enormous proportions in Europe." Even though there is always much publicity surrounding the desecration of Jewish and Muslim sites, "nobody knows that the tombs of Catholics are continually desecrated," he said. "There is a sort of anti-clericalism in France that is not healthy at all." While he believes everyone has the right to criticize religions, he thinks the scale of the criticism is becoming increasingly "out of proportion." © All Rights Reserved, Living His Life Abundantly®/Women of Grace®  http://www.womenofgrace.com