The French demonstrate their bravery by putting Scientology on trial:

The case centres on a complaint made in 1998 by a woman who said she was enrolled into Scientology after members approached her in the street and persuaded her to do a personality test.

In the following months, she paid more than €21,000 for books, “purification packs” of vitamins, sauna sessions and an “e-meter” to measure her spiritual progress, she said.

Other complaints then surfaced. The five original plaintiffs – three of whom withdrew after reaching a financial settlement with the Church of Scientology – said they spent up to hundreds of thousands of euros on similar tests and cures.

It’s a promising start, and I wish the lawyers trying to shut down the frauds of scientology good luck.

It’s only a start, though. Scientology is small fry; I think the next target ought to be Lourdes, which also racks up big money for the Catholic church and the various remoras of bunco artists pushing religion with false promises of cures and spiritual purification. I don’t see any difference at all between the papacy and L. Ron Hubbard’s empire of lies…why not hit them all?