Another Church Vandalized In France

France’s churches are increasingly the target of a degree of vandalism far more vicious than can be explained by the resentment and envy motivating mere graffiti or broken windows. What is in the heart of a young person when they go to the trouble of wreaking such large-scale destruction to the objects so representative of an adult’s faith in the promise of a better future?

Translated by myself, a no-longer-unusual story from Angers:

Church vandalized in broad daylight

Yesterday, in Angers, they overturned altar and tabernacle, overturned the baptismal font…

Located in the heart of downtown Angers, Saint-Joseph church was targeted yesterday [January 30]. It was the former parish priest who discovered the sad tableau: “Passing through Angers, he came to visit the church with members of his family, reported father Michel Fromont, the current priest….

Inside the church, vandals were especially active in the chancel: the little wooden altar, which serves for weekly Mass, was overturned. The tabernacle was ripped out “even though it was cemented into the wall”, said father Fromont. The vandals even tried to break it open it once it was on the ground, in the middle of shattered vases. The baptismal font lost its water once it was knocked over. And the principal altar cloths were thrown onto the ground.

Closed at night, the church doesn’t open its doors until 9:00 am. In order to avoid being surprised by visitors, the vandals acted in the morning, between 9:00 am and noon, after having gained access through the main entrance. For father Fromont, these acts are “not petty”. “This isn’t benches or chairs that were broken, but very meaningful religious objects.” Not to mention that there “already had been incidents here”.

Beyond the overturned crosses, the priest mentions a video, filmed in the church, broadcast over the internet. A short amateur film showing youths skateboarding in the church, sitting on the altar, or joking in the confessional. “We weren’t aware of it, but someone alerted us to it after having seen it online, among other videos of a gothic style.” This was several months ago. At that time, no complaints were made. But yesterday’s actions have changed that. Father Fromont has passed along the security video that he had, to the police.

An older story of church vandalism, involving the decapitation of a Madonna, here.

[Thanks to Le Salon Beige]

Swiss church under siege

Treating a wave of vandalism against its stained glass windows as the equivalent of a natural disaster, the community of Monthey have banded together to entomb their church's beautiful windows, in order to save them.

Thanks to the tireless French-language news site BafWeb for bringing attention to this story; my translation of a tragically symbolic defense against violent "youth", as a besieged Swiss church sacrifices outer beauty for inner peace:

Soccer balls, stones, and rubber bullets: following a renewal of attacks upon the Catholic church of Monthey, the parish has put protective measures in place for their stained glass windows.

…

Sign of changing times, the church must protect its stained glass windows from vandals by imposing “armor-plating”!

Approximately 10,000 francs have been devoted towards this construction project, said parish priest Henri Roduit. “Acts of vandalism have always existed, but increasingly the phenomenon has taken on proportions too important [to ignore].”

And the pastor adds: “We are confronted with three sorts of vandalism against these stained glass windows. Besides soccer balls, there are stones thrown and rubber bullets fired from pistols.”

Facing up to the increasing frequency of these incidents, the parish wanted to take preventative measures, [because] of the high costs of repeated repairs. “The system chosen by the parish Council has the advantage of associating a defense against projectiles of all sorts along with protection against the cold. The plate-glass installed in front of the stained glass windows are made of a very solid composite material.” What’s more, the discretion of this process does not weigh upon the aesthetic. And let us remember that a stained glass window can be admired from the interior of a church. ...

Hiding the treasures of European culture behind increased layers of armor plating may speak well of the ingenuity and resilience of the remaining true believers, but what else does such a gesture suggest? It would be more reassuring that they would view their communities as a whole, and their very nation with the same pride, and would take measures on a larger scale to diminish the scale of "youthful" urban violence forcing those capable of appreciating the beauty of a stained glass window to remain indoors.
Are unrepentant thugs and vandals as inevitable as a winter frost? Maybe post-christian Europe has come to think so, if the remaining faithful few view a good defense as the best offense.

Blind Faith Decapitates Madonna in French Church

France's churches are frequently the target of graphitti and vandalism. Sometimes the destruction is petty in scale, while other times, such as this time, it assumes a larger, more symbolic turn, as a medieval statue is decapitated by unknown vandals.

From the news site La Depeche [my translation]:

The break-in took place on the night of Sunday to Monday, in the basilica of Notre-Dame-de-Marceille at Limoux. The coat and the head of the virgin of Marceille were stolen. Only the Jesus that the black madonna carried in her left arm remained intact. According to first estimates, no other object had been stolen from the basilica that night.

What is it that the vandal thinks he is destroying, as he rips out the robe of a long-cherished statue, as he tears off Mary’s head, robbing the parishioners of her smile?
Does he think those who can have faith in God see that faith as a shield against evil, so that by destroying their hollow statue the vandal sees himself as destroying a hollow faith..?
Does he see those placing their faith in an unseen God as blind people stumbling in the dark, and that his act of destruction is an act to illuminate their world, freeing them from a “blind faith” in a divine goodness breathing life into an otherwise empty existence?
Does he think that only wordly repercussions may follow from his actions, denying even the remotest possibility that he may pay a price much more perpetual than the suffering he seeks for fellow human beings in this life?
Who, really, is the one with blind faith?

As I sat through Mass this Sunday I took the time to cast my eyes about my church, and imagined myself following a Liturgy in a much older church now decorated by a headless statue. What does such a sight do to the faith of those parishioners? What do the faithful look to in order to strengthen their faith, when violent acts such as these, or worse, make it so difficult to persist in continuing this most passionate of commitments?

Probably they affirm their faith through the same technique that works so well for us on this side of the world: the summoning of a sense of sincere gratitude.
Seeing hope in the future by clearly seeing the past.

When memory is properly exercised, when history is sincerely studied, then one can’t help but feel grateful for all the incalculable gifts and blessings that have come our way.
Ignoring the past is key to hiding from the future, for to remember even our own personal youth would beg us to recall a time and age when we didn't know everything there was to know, where we could never know all the kindnesses and sacrifices made on our behalf, the many times that we were watched over while we slept, blindly innocent of the scope of the good around us.

Easy for me to hope the parishioners facing a faceless Mary can renew their commitment to their faith; yet days like yesterday, a day of Thanksgiving in Canada, make it so much easier for us to assert belief in a positive future, as we take the time and make the effort to appreciate our blessed past.

Having a faith in one’s future can’t be classified as “blind”, surely, when such commitment is based on as strenuous an effort to continually see things as clearly as possible. It’s by anchoring oneself in the past, that the best estimates can be made for one’s future. If we’ve grown before, surely we may do so again. If we’ve been blessed before, why not presume the likelihood of being blessed again? History may not repeat itself in exact detail, but honesty demands we acknowledge that it does recycle itself in outline, in pattern. Gratitude for one’s past, affirmed through clear memory, is the best preparation for the soul to feel hopeful for the future; where else can such confidence come from, but from familiarity..?

It was not through any blindness that I was able, yesterday evening, to see the scope of the bounty of gifts that have come my way through my short life. It was with clear vision that I could see the scale of the homemade Thanksgiving Dinner that my wife and I shared with those valued customers whose appreciated patronage allows me to pay my bills.
My faith is not a wall between me and reality, as the faithless vandal might see it; it is a window, letting me truly savor all the Goodness that fills this world.

Too bad the vandals of this age can’t see what we see, trapped as they are within the cage of an eternal present tense, empty of past, empty of future... it is tempting to even pity them, for there are none so blind as those who will not see.