PARIS — The controversial Ukrainian group Femen, whose topless members stage pranks to support gay rights, Sunday clashed with Catholic marchers in Paris who oppose France's draft law to legalize gay marriage.

The Catholic group Civitas organized Sunday's march by several thousand people carrying pro-family banners.

Several Femen activists turned up topless, chanted "in gay we trust" and sprayed white powder from bottles.

That prompted several anti-gay marriage protesters to hit the Femen members and push them to the ground.

On Saturday, several thousand people took to the streets in cities across France to protest the draft law, which could see marriage and adoption legalized for homosexual couples early next year.

In the daily Le Monde on Saturday, the heads of the Catholic, Muslim, Protestant, and Jewish communities urged President Francois Hollande's government to allow more time for a public debate on what they said was a foundation of society.

In the same edition, a front-page editorial called the plan "a legitimate, necessary and progressive reform" and said it will have been amply debated in public by the time the bill has its first reading in parliament in January.