Christianity Under Attack in France

Mysterious fires, Molotov cocktails, satanic symbols and growing Christian hatred. In recent years, nearly a thousand anti-Christian incidents have been reported per year in France.

Ile de la Cite, Paris, a UNESCO world heritage site, with Notre-Dame Cathedral in flames on April 15, 2019 (Photo: Hemis/AFP)

The fire started in a chapel and destroyed the presbytery and damaged the wooden parts of the building, which dates back to the 18th century. It was shortly afterwards that the fire broke out inside the Nantes Cathedral in western France.

First Notre Dame. Now #Nantes cathedral. France’s Christian heritage spontaneously combusts. pic.twitter.com/utOwmrX3LD

— David Vance (@DVATW) July 18, 2020

The Nantes Cathedral is famous for its beautifully built 400-year-old organ. The flames came from the direction of the instrument, through the central window of the main facade. The organ and several stained glass windows were destroyed.

It is now reported that the fire at Nantes Cathedral has destroyed both it's 400-year-old organ and the stained glass window on the church's west end. https://t.co/4IGEEl2Tfl pic.twitter.com/Sv1b4oYW3v

— Robert Kearney (@Robkearney1981) July 18, 2020

Later, a fire broke out in the Catholic church of St Peter and St Paul in Lille in eastern France, where foul play could not be ruled out, France3 local television reported in 2021.

Gros incendie juste à côté de l’église de Wazemmes à Lille, les flammes commencent à prendre sur l’église elle-même... #wazemmes #lille #incendie pic.twitter.com/YLHzRCKUJF

— Vincent Ismailysta (@baikalprod) May 3, 2021

In 2018 alone, L’Observatoire de la Christianophobie (Christianophobia Observatory) counted 26 fires or attempted fires that occurred inside or near churches in France, the Liberation reported.

In 2021, more than 800 anti-Christian incidents were reported in France. A 2019 survey found that 48 per cent of the French population identified as Catholic, four per cent as Muslim, and one per cent as Jewish, with 34 per cent describing themselves as having no religion. But other studies suggest the percentage of Muslims is higher, the Catholic Herald reported. According to an official count published in February and processed by CheckNews, the interior ministry recorded "1,063 anti-Christian acts" in 2018. At the end of March, Le Figaro published a report from the gendarmerie that reported 877 cases of damage and vandalism. In 2018, there were 129 thefts at Catholic places of worship.

Unfortunately, Catholic churches have become increasingly frequent targets of vandalism. The Paris-based L'Observatoire de la Christianophobie tracks anti-Christian acts. France’s interior ministry recorded 996 anti-Christian acts in 2019 - an average of 2.7 per day.

Growing Christian-hatred across France

A map by L'Observatoire de la Christianophobie circulated on social media illustrates the increase in Christianophobia in France since 2010.

Carte des églises vandalisées ou détruites en 2018🤔 pic.twitter.com/k1m8KMR1KK

— jackie E. (@jicki13) April 18, 2019

Between April 2019 and July 2024, the US-based Snopes fact-checking website repeatedly checked this map, which documents all the incidents - such as  vandalism, theft, arson, or other violence - that have been directed against Christian churches, cemeteries and buildings.

It should also be noted that while this map does document some relatively serious crimes, such as arson or the toppling of church statues, many of these pins correspond to graffiti-related incidents, the fact-checkers wrote.

The map below is a non-exhaustive collection by Magyar Nemzet of churches in France that have burned down or have been set on fire in recent years.

Photo: Magyar Nemzet

"A good church is a burning church"

Besides fires, churches are the targets of numerous other atrocities and attacks against Christian symbols are also on the rise in France.

A banner five meters long and one meter high was placed on the Saint-Volusien abbey church under renovation in Foix, Ariege, which read: "A good church is a burning church".

In March 2022, vandals targeted the Romilly sur Seine church in Aube. A plaster statue of Our Lady was found smashed to pieces on the floor and the church's documents were set on fire.

Satanist and anarchist tags were discovered on the church of St Nicholas in Nantes, as well as a swastika and various symbols on the church of Saint-Ondras in the north of Isere and on the walls of the college of Abrets in Dauphine in March 2022. Unknown perpetrators daubed satanic inscriptions in black paint on the facade of the cathedral of Coutances in Manche department.

Also in the spring of 2022, the tabernacle was found forced open in the church of Courcoury near Saintes.  A valuable wafer container was also taken for "satanic purposes",  according to the parish priest. Reunion media interviewed gravediggers who look after the eastern cemetery in Saint-Denis. They reported horrific acts of desacration and satanic or woodoo rituals. 

In February, a man threw insults in Arabic and spat at a priest at the Saint Michel church in Bordeaux.  It later emerged that the French court had sanctioned this man, previously convicted but on the run for several years, for this act only by ordering him to attend a citizenship course. In Fontainebleau, a man who vandalized 67 graves in a Catholic cemetery was sentenced to mere three months, suspended. On January 25, 2022, a 48-year-old man was arrested for looking for the priest in the Holy Trinity Basilica in Blois with a Quran and a long knife in hand.

According to the French authorities, this is not a crime and does not qualify as terrorism.

At the beginning of 2022, a man grabbed the sacred vessel during communion in the Saint-Esprit church in Paris, smashed it and threw it on the floor. The act of desecration sparked a huge outcry.

The powers of evil are being unleashed, it is a test of the church's trust in God and a reminder that Christ defeated the devil,

the parish priest said later.

In December 2021, around 30 priests and the participants in a procession were attacked by hooded youths in Nanterre. 

The attackers called them infidels, shouting "this is Allah's country" or "I will slit your throats, I swear on the Quran".

The photo taken on 17 June 2007 shows the interior of the 16th-century Croix chapel in Loqueffret, western France, which was partially destroyed in a fire. On June 18, police in western France launched a manhunt for a satanic group whose members were believed to be responsible for a fire at a 16th century chapel and a series of attacks on other Christian sites (Photo: AFP/Fred Tanneau) 

Nothing is sacred anymore

Hailed by French "Gothic" critics, Swedish satanist artist Anna von Hausswolff performed at the end of 2021, the day before the Feast of the Immaculate Conception at Notre-Dame de Bon Port in Nantes. The woman, who respects nothing and no one, later called the protesters "homophobes, royalist, far-right anarchists" on social media. 

In the summer of 2021, human excrement was found on several occasions in the church of Vire in Calvados department. 

"This is clearly the repeated manifestation of deliberate malice," said Francois Lecrux, the parish priest.

The above examples are far from exhaustive. Acts of violence against Christianity are on the rise. The website of L'Observatoire de la Christianophobie contains 81 pages of attacks on Christian church facilities, fires, thefts and violent assaults against Christian priests in France.

Cover photo: Ile de la Cite, Paris, a UNESCO world heritage site, with Notre-Dame Cathedral in flames on April 15, 2019 (Photo: Hemis/AFP)