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Judicial showdown around the Russian Orthodox "old church" in Nice

2020-11-18T00:43:21.113Z


The Orthodox parish of Nice, stuck for more than ten years in a standoff with the Russian state and already ousted from Saint Nicholas Cathedral, pleaded Tuesday, November 17 in court to prevent its expulsion from another church dating from the tsars. Read also: Russia anchors its base in Africa in Sudan Nicknamed " the old church ", the Saint-Nicolas-et-Sainte-Alexandra church was built just be


The Orthodox parish of Nice, stuck for more than ten years in a standoff with the Russian state and already ousted from Saint Nicholas Cathedral, pleaded Tuesday, November 17 in court to prevent its expulsion from another church dating from the tsars.

Read also: Russia anchors its base in Africa in Sudan

Nicknamed "

the old church

", the Saint-Nicolas-et-Sainte-Alexandra church was built just before Nice was joined to France in 1860. Nice then welcomed a large Russian diaspora whose ranks grew after the revolution of 1917 and the arrival of numerous Russian emigrants fleeing the Bolshevik regime.

"

The Russian Federation has taken ownership of these goods

", denounced before the judicial court of Nice Me Jean-Marc Szepetowski, the lawyer of the Russian Orthodox worship association (Acor) of Nice, accusing Russia of '' having found "

a complacent or incompetent notary

" to modify in 2015 the deed of ownership established in 1927 for the benefit of the parish.

"

An act unworthy of a sovereign state

," he blasted.

In addition to the church, located in the beautiful districts of downtown Nice, a cemetery and adjoining grounds of the Saint-Nicolas cathedral are also concerned in this case which combines the upheavals of Russian political history with considerations of pure French right.

"

Religious value

"

Mr. Szepetowski thus argued that the parish had the "

peaceful, public and unequivocal

"

enjoyment

of the church for 93 years, paying its taxes, receiving subsidies, maintaining this building classified as a historic monument and celebrating the office there.

For the lawyers of the Russian Federation, Me Roy Spitz and Andrea Pinna, the association would never have really been the owner of the premises, but only its manager.

"

This has already been decided

", pleaded Me Pinna.

In 2013, the Court of Cassation had already allowed Russia to recover Saint-Nicolas Cathedral.

On the sidelines of the hearing, Me Pinna explained that Russia made it neither a diplomatic question nor a question of money: "

It is not the market value of goods that matters, but their religious value

".

"

The Russians want to get their hands back on anything that reminds them of their glorious Tsarist past after being uninterested in it for 70 years,

" laments a member of the parish council, who requested anonymity.

"

They want to drive out all parish associations, not just in Nice, to place their own clergy there and for the sake of spreading abroad

".

The Russian Orthodox parish of Nice has never recognized the religious tutelage of Moscow, preferring until 2019 the Patriarchate of Constantinople, finally abandoned for the diocese of Bishop Joseph, Metropolitan of the Patriarchate of Romania.

Source: lefigaro

All news articles on 2020-11-18

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