By Gavin Mortimer, Catholic Herald. (photo: Stefan Kunze/Unsplash)
This month France has been severely rattled by what some are calling Christianophobie that has swept over the country.
In the Brittany city of Rennes, the church of Saint Jean Marie Vianney was desecrated, and in Normandy the parish hall of a church was vandalised. A similar fate befell the parish hall of the Saint-Laurent church in Maurepas, south of Paris, while in the middle of the French capital a man carrying a knife entered Saint-Ambroise church just before Mass. Police were swiftly on the scene and no one was hurt in the incident.
In the south of France, a church in Saint-Aygulf was targeted on the night of May 4/5. The tabernacle was ripped off and the Eucharist removed. In a statement, Monseigneur François Touvet of the local diocese, said: “For Christians, this act is a sign of a desire to desecrate what is most dear to Catholic Christians.”
The most disturbing incident occurred last weekend at Avignon, 120 miles west of Saint-Aygulf, at the church of Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Repos. Shortly after Father Laurent Milan had conducted evening Mass, he was confronted by “around ten teenagers or young adults asking if they could enter the church”. They said they were Muslims who wanted to visit a church.
Father Milan welcomed the youths into the church whereupon the trouble started. One of several parishioners who witnessed the disorder told reporters that “one of them started running around, others gathered around the priest, shouting insults”.
The invective was against Jesus and the Catholic religion, and Father Milan was warned: “We’re going to come back and burn down your church.” The mob departed with a cry of “Allah akbar!”
The threat should not be taken lightly. Incidences of arson on Christian places of worship rose by 30 per cent in 2024, up from 38 incidences in 2023 to 50.