Sunday, February 9, 1992, it’s been twenty days since Father Garat left, manu militari, his presbytery in Espelette. In solidarity, seven hundred people gather early in the morning on the market square. The impressive procession then heads in silence towards the church where, for the occasion, the Bishop of Bayonne, Mgr Molères surrounded by ten other priests, is preparing to celebrate a mass in support of François. Despite the anger rumbling among the villagers, the watchword is clear: no shouting, no banners, no slogans. “Our silence will be the most beautiful of sermons”, launches one of the priests during the symbolic release of white doves. From the depths of his cell, the Abbot embastillé wrote a letter to his faithful parishioners: “Since my childhood, I have always seen my parents open the door of the house, without asking the stranger who he is, nor where he comes from”. Faithful to his faith, François Garat invokes the Holy Scriptures in his defense.
Abbé Garat’s relatives cry foul
“Through the centuries”, he writes, “it is always the same refrain that comes back to the ears of the faithful: do not close the door to the stranger, practice hospitality towards him”. Beautiful words that leave the investigating judge unmoved. Disappointed but not resigned, the relatives of the parish priest of Espelette ask to be received by the Keeper of the Seals. Faced with the Minister’s adviser, Yves Charpenel, a delegation of lawyers, journalists and priests denounced, and I quote, “the police raids in the Basque Country”: doors kicked in, machine gun pointed at a 12-year-old child, it is , according to the support committee, “the most popular social fabric that is targeted”, a population attached to “a tradition of hospitality for centuries”. It is certainly not the first time that a Basque priest has been worried by the courts, but the parish priest of Espelette is the first to be thrown into jail for his commitments and his actions in the service of the Basque cause.