A longtime bane of French Catholic churches, known as industrie de St.-Sulpice, is on the way out. The industry: mass production of plaster images of the saints, which look like refugees from a candy factory. For decades, they have been sold in great quantities by the supply stores that ring the church of St.-Sulpice in Paris' Latin Quarter. The figures invariably have red and blue garments with gold and silver borders, and piously uptilted blue or brown eyes. As decoration they may be innocuous, but as objects of veneration they are absurd.
Now, under the pressure of an aroused clergy, French churches...
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