French Catholics defy government call to work on Pentecost Monday

PARIS (RNS) A large chunk of the French population ignored a government order to work May 16, normally a state holiday called Whit Monday that honors the Christian feast of Pentecost.

Air and ground traffic was snarled, and classrooms, offices and local municipal buildings lay empty as tens of thousands of French played hooky.

Pentecost Monday is a day off in many European countries. But in France, the government of Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin had decreed the day a working one as of this year, predicting a 2 billion euro ($2.54 billion) windfall that would help bankroll retirement pensions for the elderly.

The plan seemed a good one when it was first announced - shortly after a staggering 15,000 people died in a 2003 heatwave in France, many of them senior citizens.