SainteRita church demolition in Paris:Protestors and church officials refuse to leave
Paris August 3:Twelve riot police cars have arrived to crack down on the sit-down protest in Paris’s 15th district, as dozens demonstrate against the demolition of the local Church of Sainte Rita. Many took to social networks to vent over the situation.
The church has been mined and the demolition is ready to begin, but the protesters – some of them local councilors – refuse to leave. Videos of police dragging protesters emerged online.
#SainteRita On arrête manu militari un #enfant de cœur comme s’il était un dangereux #terroriste…
Invraisemblable! pic.twitter.com/Ll3H07ZWCe— Napoléon (@tprincedelamour) August 3, 2016
A parking lot is set to be built in place of the church. Parisians also took to Twitter to speak out against the demolition, and to emphasize how symbolic the events look, especially after the chilling murder of the priest last week.
#SainteRita Des élus présents sont trainés à terre! 12 cars de CRS pour détruire une église! #paris15 pic.twitter.com/7wGoW3x37i
— Philippe Goujon (@Philippe_Goujon) August 3, 2016
The leader of the right-wing National Front party Marine le Pen has tweeted, “And what if they built parking lots in the place of Salafist mosques, and not of our churches?”
The church has been officially closed since last year, with the plan to demolish the church in place since October 2015. Sainte Rita has been operational, though, serving a new Catholic parish association.
The hefty sum of €3 million is needed to save the church, according to France TV Info. The owner of the property sold it after he couldn’t pay the rent anymore. However, local clerics say they have nowhere to go if Sainte Rita is destroyed.
“For the moment, no one has offered me anything else. We hold marriages, baptisms, all sorts of ceremonies regularly. We can’t leave just like this if no one offers us anything. Or we’ll celebrate services in the street,” Paris’s archbishop Monseigneur Dominique Philippe told France 3 broadcaster.
