in Ardèche, a town is torn apart around the construction site of a huge church

In Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier, an Ardèche town of 400 inhabitants, the Missionary Family of Notre-Dame has been established for more than 75 years. This can be seen by climbing on the heights near a statue of the Virgin. “There is the church and the two rather new buildings behind“, describe Clémence Delahaye, farmer, “this is where the community is located“. 30 to 40 religious live here year-round, near a church deemed too small by the community, which has a total of 155 members throughout France. For years, they have been calling for the construction of a huge 3,500-seat chapel.

The State rejected the appeals of the opponents, the work has therefore already begun, offering a very concrete landscape. “And again, at the level of the stream, when you are a trout or an otter, you see even more concrete“, laments Pierrot Pantel, ecological engineer, for whom the project is not without ecological consequences. “Several hectares of habitats of protected species have been destroyed, since they have razed woods, groves, which are places of life for these species and which today are no longer there.“.

This degradation of the environment is the main raison d’être of the collective of opponents who are demonstrating this Saturday, April 8. A criminal complaint has just been filed in this regard.

Beyond the opponents, the Missionary Family of Notre-Dame is also in the sights of Miviludes (Interministerial Mission for Vigilance and the Fight against Sectarian Abuses), which singled it out in particular in its 2018-2020 report, at the series of testimonies evoking among its members young people who are too immature, malleable, poorly cared for, far from their families or whose correspondence is censored.

“It’s completely defamatory“, defends the superior of the community, Father Bernard, “I never opened a community member’s letter, I never stopped a community member from going to see a doctor. There is complete freedom in relation to families, everything that is said in there is false“. Ilast year again, Miviludes received five referrals on this subject and a criminal investigation was opened by the Privas prosecutor’s office.

The members of the community, however, do not define themselves as traditionalist Catholics. They respect the reforms of the Second Vatican Council, there is indeed a mass in Latin but only once a week. In the place where the community lives around the historic village church, the atmosphere is quite relaxed. Everyone is busy, a sister passes the broom, a brother leaves to cook, another studies… Few agree to discuss, but many regret that the demonstration of the opponents takes place on this Easter Saturday.

For years, relations have been quite cold between the inhabitants and the members of the community: “Some people consistently don’t say hello to us or look away when we say hello or give them a good nod.“, lament the sisters Léonie and Charlotte, “in any case, there has always been a distance, a closure.”

For their part, some residents are annoyed to see religious taking up more and more space, with the purchase of several houses in the village by relatives of the community. This is what Gérard Renard did, whose two children have been with the Missionary Family for 20 years, and for whom “We are Catholic, the big problem is there. There were marks on the wall that have been erased here! If they were still there, we would see that it was not ecology or secularism that were defended , it’s anti-Catholic.”

“We feel that Christians are persecuted in the world, we understand why because they are even persecuted here.”

Gerard Fox

at franceinfo

Last year, Eric Zemmour arrived here in the lead, in the first round of the presidential election, just ahead of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Opponents of the church site saw in it the mark of the religious, members of the community from all over France being registered, legally, on the electoral rolls of the village.

The mayor’s support for the construction site

There are only two shops in Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier. Ihe hairdresser ensures that the basilica project is very little mentioned by customers. The grocer, Laure Hodgin, explains with a laugh that she would “preferred a Center Parc!“before continuing: “We have seen the plans, it is true that it is a bit big, but it will be a plus for us, in terms of trade.“It is also the argument of the mayor, elected for 22 years, who supports the site, but does not spread out in comments.

The church project was never put on the agenda at the municipal council. “I have a problem with it“, explains the first assistant Sophie Nahas, “because as a municipality we may not have an action on a private construction site of this order, but we have to worry about the safety of the bridges, the roads, the nuisances that the construction site will directly cause among local residents.”

However, recalls Pierrot Pantel, in a certain way it is the whole of society which finances the site: “It’s you, it’s me, it’s a bit like everyone, the taxpayer through his taxes, because it’s paid for with donations. And donations are tax-exempt up to 66%“.

In total, the estimated cost of this construction amounts to 18 million euros. The diocese and the Vatican are opposed to the construction site, Rome has moreover sent on the spot, in recent months, an apostolic assistant, to observe more closely the “governance issues“within the Missionary Family of Notre-Dame.