France: Arsonist of Saint-Omer Church Arrested
A man with a “long history” – in other words a repeat offender – was arrested as part of the investigation into the fire at the Immaculate Conception Church in Saint-Omer, which was ravaged by fire during the night of September 1 to 2, 2024. It left behind considerable damage.
According to the Valeurs actuelles website, the suspect is known for “destruction by fire,” said the prosecutor in charge of the case. The man, born in 1985, has “a long history,” and is “known for similar acts of arson,” the prosecutor added.
Le Figaro provides additional details. The suspect is of French nationality. He “confessed to breaking into the religious building around midnight, according to him with the aim of stealing money from the boxes, then deciding to set it on fire.”
The suspect had been “out of prison since August 27,” after his 26th conviction, Le Figaro continues, including “at least five for vandalism or burning churches in the region” according to a judicial source. Le Monde specifies that he had set fire to “four churches in Boulogne in 2021,” and that he had also been convicted “for vandalism or damaging of a place of worship.”
Le Monde also recalls that “during his trial for the burning of the four churches in Pas-de-Calais, the man explained that he had acted ‘because of his past’: abandoned, entrusted to a foster family, raped by his adoptive father, he said he attacked churches because of what the ‘TV’ reported that ‘priests are [pedophile] sex offenders.”
Journalist Marc Eynaud, author of Who Wants to Attack Catholics?, explains in Le Figaro that “the real understanding of the problem [of the increasing number of church fires] is due to the violent anti-Christian offensive that is raging in France.”
“This charge is above all cultural: we can no longer count the mockeries, the repartees, the acts of intellectual hatred towards Catholics. Likewise the judicial guerrilla warfare led by associations such as La libre pensée or the Ligue des droits de l’homme which, in the presence of the slightest Christian sign in the public space, invade the administrative courts to wage a veritable war against Christians.”
The journalist concludes: “If, for years, criticism, insults and even unanimous condemnations are addressed against an institution, how can we be surprised that there are acts of violence?”
A Collection to Finance the Reconstruction
Le Monde reports “that a collection launched by the Fondation du patrimoine to participate in the reconstruction of the building had raised as of Wednesday (04/09) at the end of the day, approximately 16,000 euros out of the 200,000 set as a target,” and more than 61,000 euros, or 30% of the sum, as of September 9.
But this sum seems small if we remember that the 2018 restoration cost five million euros.
(Sources : Valeurs actuelles/Le Figaro/Le Monde/Fondation du patrimoine – FSSPX.Actualités)
Illustration : Service Départemental d'Incendie et de Secours 62
