French Prime Minister Jean Castex, his interior minister and the Minister of Culture visited the cathedral in Nantes, accompanied by a tweet from President Emmanuel Macron, who thanked the firefighters because they “took great risks to save this Gothic jewel of the princely city”.
Apparently only the organ was completely destroyed. But there were three sources of fire, which is why the police assume arson: under the organ in the main aisle and in each of the two aisles. It was a planned fire, and it wasn’t the first of its kind against churches in France.
At the beginning of the month, the Saint Paul church was set on fire in Corbeil-Essonnes, the Evangelical Church of Saint Leger was smeared in Munster in Alsace, a figure of Mary was beheaded in Whir-au-Val, the basilica of Saint Gervais was devastated in Norman Avranges, and the Basilica of Saint Martin was vandalized in Tours.
In the case of the Saint-Pierre du Martroi church in Orleans, fire broke out due to arson and the perpetrator had sprayed blasphemous slogans and the unmistakable message “Allahu akbar” on the walls.
For years now, dozens of churches in France have been desecrated, robbed and set on fire. The same applies to cemeteries. The media has been indifferent to these events.
To address the outrage and anger of many French people, government officials hurried to the scene of the crime. After all, President Macron has the honorary title Chanoine honoraire de la basilique du Latran – a title that is also intended to express the protective function of the French leaders towards the Church.
But little has been done about this protection, especially for churches and chapels. The officially recorded number of attacks on Christian churches and graves rose from 878 in 2017 to over a thousand in the past year. There are also figures that suggest that there are three churches per day that are attacked.
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