The Vatican recognized Thursday, November 25 the martyrdom of five French priests killed in 1871 during the Paris Commune, paving the way for their beatification.
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In a decree published by the Holy See, the Congregation for the Cause of Saints recognizes the martyrdom of Henri Planchat, member of the Saint-Vincent-de-Paul community, Ladislas Radigue and three fellow priests, "
killed in hatred of the faith
»In May 1871 in Paris.
Their executions took place at the end of the popular revolt of 1871, started on March 18 and crushed in blood after 72 days by the government of the nascent Third Republic, which took refuge in Versailles. The five priests were shot by "
Communards
" during the "
Bloody Week
" on May 26, 1871, among 11 religious who had been previously held hostage. "
For the Communards, the figure of the enemy was the repressive state, embodied by the gendarmes, but also the clergy
" in a context of "
strong anticlericalism
", reminded AFP Eric Fournier, lecturer in history in Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne and specialist in the Commune. According to him, "
this campaign to recognize the martyrdom of these priests is part of a reactivation of a Versailles memory, to the right of the Commune
”.
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In May, the diocese of Paris commemorated the ecclesiastics executed during the Commune on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the events, which it had refused during the Centenary in 1971.
