Emmanuel Macron will announce Monday a campaign to classify more religious buildings in France as historical monuments, to facilitate their preservation, and plans to launch a financial subscription with the French to restore this "modest religious heritage".
During a trip to Mont-Saint-Michel to celebrate the millennium of the abbey of the famous rocky islet of La Manche, in Normandy, the head of state will look into the fate of the "unprotected religious heritage of cities of less than 10,000 inhabitants," the presidency told journalists.
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Of some 50,000 places of worship (including 42,000 Catholics) that exist in France according to a census still incomplete, only 10,500 are protected as historical monuments, a label that opens access to aid from the Ministry of Culture.
The president will ask his ministers of culture and interior to present him before the European Heritage Days of 16 and 17 September a "clearer" inventory of the situation of these buildings, said an adviser.
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In addition, the Ministry of Culture will undertake a campaign to register or classify as historical monuments religious buildings built in particular in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, whose heritage interest would justify it, with regard to a set of historical, artistic, scientific and technical criteria. " said the Elysee in a statement.
According to the councillor, "there is progress to be made by taking into consideration the originality of these buildings, the quality of their environment", "their decorative elements" and the "quality of their architecture" that "we know how to appreciate better perhaps than a few decades ago".
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To finance the restoration needs, Emmanuel Macron "opens the door to the launch of a subscription that is specifically dedicated to these religious buildings," also announced the Elysee, recalling that the French were already participating in the effort through the Heritage Lottery launched during the first five-year term of the Head of State.
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When we see the outpouring of generosity including Notre-Dame-de-Paris " benefited after the fire, the President of the Republic believes that "appeal to the commitment of the French men and women, perhaps also a certain number of foreigners, in favor of this specific heritage", "it would deserve to resort again to this tool of the subscription", it was explained.
Asked if an exceptional tax deduction would accompany this subscription as for Notre-Dame, the councillor did not exclude it, specifying that this point would be "studied" with the Ministry of Finance by September.