In this season of voter discontent, France may be the next "Brexit" and "Donald Trump" phenomenon as the devoutly Catholic Francois Fillon, once considered a long shot, is taking the country by storm.

The Catholic News Agency (CNA) is reporting on the latest populist phenomenon taking place in France where the staunchly right-wing Francois Fillon is beating Alain Juppe, a man who many believed was a more popular candidate, by a wide margin.

Fillon, the former prime minister of France and a faithful Catholic, has done nothing to hide his Catholic background, which prompted the French media to proclaim, “Help, Jesus has returned!”

Fillon is winning votes with his conservative faith and values and promises to preserve traditional values while  upholding France’s Catholic roots. Although he has no plans to overturn the 1975 law that legalized abortion in France, he has promised to “put the family at the heart of all public politics.”

The family is “certainly not a place for dangerous social experimentation”, he said, referring to recently adapted adoption rights for same-sex couples.

In his campaign book, Faire (“To Make”), Fillon recalls his Catholic upbringing and explains how the Catholic worldview has shaped who he is as a person: “I was raised in this tradition, and I have kept this faith.”

Experts say the cultural Catholics of France, dubbed les zombies catholiques (the zombie Catholics). are behind Fillon's rise. These are people described as being highly educated, morally traditional, attached to social, community and family activities and who are suspicious of the role of the state in private and community affairs, including “free schools” which are Catholic private schools.

Fillon hails from a deeply Catholic part of France and his appeal was not lost on the “zombie Catholic” voters of France during the primaries. Hailing mostly from the western regions of Vendee and Britanny, they turned out in strong numbers for Fillon while the more liberal areas in the south, including Paris, had lower turnout numbers.

It remains to be seen if Fillon’s popularity will hold out until the election when he is expected to run against far-right socialist candidate Marine Le Pen. If neither candidate wins the majority, a second vote between the top two candidates will be held on May 7.

As CNA reports, although France was once one of the most Catholic countries in Europe, only 15 percent of the country’s 41.6 million Catholics attend Mass regularly today.

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