This is not the first Church to be vandalized or set ablaze over the past few months, but it certainly is the most devastating. Newsweek just wrote an article a few weeks ago on how French Churches are being vandalized across France yet officials don’t know why. To confuse matters even more, just three days ago a jihadi terrorist woman was sentenced to eight years in prison by a French court for involvement in a foiled plot in 2016 to blow up the Notre Dame Cathedral with a car packed with gas canisters. Three days later the Notre Dame is up in flames. Coincidence? Maybe. But there is a long list of Church attacks the past few Months across France and that certainly does not look like a coincidence.
Natural or Deliberate?
This fire in a Church took place just a few weeks ago and the authorities believe that it was not an accident.
Saint Sulpice Church #Paris
— Ruthann (@TeaBoots) March 17, 2019
The moment it caught on fire people were inside and attending. Firemen on the ground saying this was no accident- This was set.pic.twitter.com/TLOAYl61dX
Seven Day Vandalism Spree at French Catholic Churches in February
A SEVEN day spree, of at least ten different incidents of vandalism, have seen Catholic churches targeted across France sparking fears of a fresh wave of anti-Christian sentiment in the country, including one church being defiled with human excrement.
One of the first attacks was on February 4 at St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Houilles, Yvelines, where a statue of the Virgin Mary was found smashed on the ground.
On February 5, an altar cloth was found burnt and crosses and statues torn down or disfigured at the recently refurbished Saint-Alain Cathedral in Lavaur, in south-central France. Luckily the fire was found by a parish secretary and did not spread.
On February 6 vandals at Notre-Dame des Enfants (Our Lady of the Children) church in Nimes broke into the tabernacle and scattered altar hosts on the ground. The vandals also drew a cross on the wall with human excrement and damaged other religious items in the church.
On February 9, a similar attack occurred at the Church of Notre-Dame de Dijon, Côte-d’Or, about 175 miles south-east of Paris.
On February 10, St Nicolas in Houilles was subjected to another attack six days after the first act of vandalism.
In a statement to Twitter on February 13, Prime Minister Edouard Phillipe voices his outrage at the attacks ahead of a meeting with Catholic bishops from across the country. “In one week, in France, 5 degraded churches. In our secular Republic, places of worship are respected. Such acts shock me and must be unanimously condemned. I will tell the bishops of France at the meeting of the forum of dialogue with the Catholic Church,” he said.
While it is unclear if all these attacks are related, there certainly seems to be a pattern. French police have been investigating this wave of attacks.
This cathedral has survived everything. It is 900 years old. It is an object of literature masterpieces. Nazis couldn’t destroy it. It is a symbol of France, beyond political regimes or religions.
— Benjamin Haddad (@benjaminhaddad) April 15, 2019