A man suspected of having committed damage to a church in the Rhône has been arrested and taken into custody, Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin announced in a tweet on Friday.
Information confirmed by the Lyon public prosecutor's office, stating that the individual
"quickly (was) identified thanks to the video surveillance of the town"
then arrested by the gendarmes of Limonest on Wednesday.
"A psychiatric report has concluded that his discernment
has been abolished," said the prosecution and his police custody must soon be lifted
"so that he can be hospitalized"
.
“The investigation is continuing in order to determine the exact circumstances of the commission of these degradations and the degree of responsibility of their author”
.
The church upside down
Tuesday, the Saint-Louis-Roi church, in Champagne-au-Mont-d'Or (Rhône) had been the subject of degradation and destruction, as deplored in a press release by Father Martin Charcosset, parish priest of the whole parish church of Saint-Jean-Marie Vianney.
“
The objects present in the church - candles, books, vases, etc.
- were thrown to the ground.
The nativity scene installed in front of the altar was turned over and damaged.
The Stations of the Cross and the paintings of the choir are essentially destroyed, as well as two large crucifixes
, ”he detailed, announcing the
sine die
suspension of religious services.
The minister displayed his "
support for the Catholics of the Rhône after the degradation
" of the place of worship.
The Archbishop of Lyon, Mgr Olivier de Germay, had meanwhile announced the holding of a mass of reparation this Friday at 7:30 p.m.
According to Father Charcosset, "
these acts, because of their violence and their target, constitute what the Church calls a profanation: the desire to attack the sanctity of the place
", adding that the church would "
soon be cleaned up
".
“
We will not raze our churches!
»
The minister's intervention in this very local affair illustrates the political sensitivity of the subject of churches, in the wake of the recent skirmish between Roselyne Bachelot and Laurent Wauquiez.
The former Minister of Culture (ex LR) had said in her latest book that it is "
impossible
" to keep all the churches, because of the budget that their maintenance requires, which made President LR jump on Monday. Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.
Read alsoFlorence Portelli: "When Roselyne Bachelot wants to shave our identity and our history"
“
No Madame Bachelot, we will not raze our churches!
“, replied Laurent Wauquiez in a press release, calling for “
mobilizing all energies
” so as not to “
resign ourselves to deconstructing our heritage
”.
He announced that the region had released since 2018 more than 20 million euros for "
restoration operations of religious buildings
" and that it would commit 30 million for the current mandate.
