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Father
Philippe de Maistre
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“I chose to continue celebrating the Mass, but the police were ordering us to stop,” Father de Maistre told the Figaro.
The Archbishop of Paris,
Michel Aupetit, later said that if this sort of situation were to repeat
itself, the French Catholic hierarchy would “speak out, and in case of
confinement, bark very loudly.”
“We are in times that recall certain not very happy
periods France went through, such as the (German) Occupation,” said Bishop
Aupetit. He ironically underscored that a “good-willed” neighbour had acted as
an informer, “warning” the police.
“It is formally
prohibited” for armed policemen to enter into a church, he insisted, because
the parish priest alone has power of policing in his church: the police may
only enter without his permission when there is a “threat to the public order.”
In the case of Saint-André, the parish priest had been careful to close the door
so that no public would enter.
“They need to keep
their heads and stop this nonsense,” the Bishop added. “Otherwise, we will
speak out and, in case of confinement, bark very loudly.”
One member of the French National Assembly,
Marie-France Lorho, also reacted strongly, in a letter to the French Minister
of the Interior Christophe Castaner.
The letter was made
public by Mrs Lorho, deputy of the southern département of the Vaucluse, on her website.
In her letter,
having recalled the rules about police entry into churches, she stated that the
interruption of a religious service constitutes “an extremely grave act” which
can even in certain cases amount to a “profanation.”
“No health crisis
can in fact justify such an attack on freedom of worship,” she wrote, quoting
the March 23 decree that specifically allows private Masses. “Does the minister
intend to recall his instructions to his police forces? Does the minister
intend to state more clearly than the decree of March 23, that it in no way
impedes in any way whatsoever the celebration of Masses behind closed doors?
Finally, does the Minister intend to punish the dubious denunciations which are
flourishing against religious services?”
The Saint-André incident was not, in fact, the first
of its kind. During the Easter night, the traditionalist parish of
Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris was also targeted by the police after neighbours
complained that a “clandestine” Mass was taking place: it was in fact the
Easter vigil that had been widely announced and was being broadcast via
Internet. The film showed that the pews were empty.
The religious
affairs editor of the weekly Le
Point, Aziz Zemouri, presented the incident as a serious
breach of public security regarding the COVID-19 epidemic and claimed that the
celebrating priest had allowed a number of parishioners to attend in violation
of current regulations. One of those parishioners, wrote Zemouri, had left the
celebration at around midnight and warned the police. Many French media picked
up the story, with disparaging remarks about the FSSPX parish. The main French
semi-public news agency AFP illustrated the story with a photo of the nave of
Saint-Nicolas filled with parishioners.
The unlikely story
was later denied by the prior of Saint-Nicolas, who also clarified that
contrary to media reports he had not been fined. According to some sources it
was the police chief who led the intervention who (spitefully) told the story
to the press.
Another Parisian
church, Saint-Eugène Sainte-Cécile, where traditional “Summorum Pontificum”
Masses are celebrated on a daily basis, was also “visited” by the police
on April 16 during the 7 PM Mass. On that occasion, the priest having omitted
to close the church doors during the celebration, some 15 parishioners had
entered the church, staying at the back and respecting rules for social
distancing. But their presence was still deemed illegal.
One lay Catholic who drove to
confess in a monastery near his home in the country shortly before Easter was
fined because his travel was deemed “not essential” by local “gendarmes”
although visits to one’s place of worship are explicitly allowed by confinement
rules on the website of the French Interior Ministry.
An increasing number of priests and lay associations
are complaining about the strict prohibition of public Masses in France, while
at the same time supermarkets, wine shops, garden centres and public transport
are open to the public.
President Emmanuel
Macron has announced that partial loosening of lockdown will (or may…) take
place on May 11, but has already made clear that public Masses and other
religious ceremonies will not be allowed before the middle of June.
He said so in a
video conference with faith leaders and heads of Masonic organisations last
Monday, shortly after having had a 45-minute telephone conversation with (Anti) Pope
Francis, during which the question of the prohibition of religious services was
not addressed, according to a presidential spokesman.
The LifeSiteNews story is
here (below):
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| BUY HERE. |
The police stormed into the church after having been 'warned' by people
living close by that a 'clandestine' Mass was taking place. y
By Jeanne Smits, Paris correspondent
April 24, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – Four armed policemen entered a Parisian church last Sunday in order
to stop what they considered to be an illegal Mass in view of France’s
confinement regulations linked to the coronavirus.
The incident caused outrage among
French Catholics. The Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, later said that if
this sort of situation were to repeat itself, the French Catholic hierarchy
would “speak out, and in case of confinement, bark very loudly.”
The police stormed into the church
after having been “warned” by people living close by that a “clandestine” Mass
was taking place in the parish of Saint-André de l’Europe, in the 8th
arrondissement of Paris. They had heard an organ playing.
Under French confinement rules in
force since March 17, places of worship may remain open to the public, but
public Masses are forbidden. Funeral Masses are an exception. They are
permitted with a maximum of 20 participants.
For the rest, only private Masses are
allowed, which can include religious communities but no faithful, except for
liturgical and technical purposes when the celebrations are being filmed and
broadcast for the benefit of the faithful who are confined in their homes.
Such was the case last Sunday when
Father Philippe de Maistre celebrated Mass in the presence of an altar server,
a cantor and three parishioners to read the lectures, as well as an organist
and cameramen: less than the maximum of twenty, at any rate. The situation was
therefore completely legal.
The situation soon became tense as
the armed law enforcement officers ordered the priest to stop the celebration
and warned him that he would be fined.
“I chose to continue celebrating the
Mass, but the police were ordering us to stop,” Father de Maistre told
the Figaro.
Luckily, his altar server was himself
a policeman who went down the altar steps to engage in dialogue with the
officers. The discussion lasted for twenty minutes, at the end of which the
police accepted not to fine de Maistre. They did, however, insist that the
three parishioners leave the church.
According to the rules regarding the
separation of church and state in France, a parish priest is master in his own
church and no police, let alone armed police, are allowed to enter such
buildings unless called to do so by the religious authority.
Also, a special decree published
March 23 regarding the celebration of Mass during the confinement period –
which has already led to many Kafkaesque prohibitions against anything from
walking alone on a deserted beach to jogging more than 1 km from home – was in
fact anything but clear.
The faithful are specifically allowed
to go to their place of worship and to enter individually but “reunions” and
“gatherings” are prohibited: the presence of less than 10 people in the parish
church of Saint-André de l’Europe which can accommodate 500 was certainly not a
“gathering.”
As the former chapel of a religious
congregation, that particular church, moreover, does not belong to the
municipality of Paris according to a law 1907, but to the diocese. By entering
the private premises of the church, overzealous policemen actually violated the
private property of an association and their entry plainly constituted an
“assault” under French law, according to the Fondation du Pont-Neuf, a
conservative think tank based in Paris.
Bishop Aupetit of Paris sharply
criticized the police during an interview with Radio Notre Dame, the radio
station of the diocese of Paris, on Wednesday.
“We are in times that recall certain
not very happy periods France went through, such as the (German) Occupation,”
said Bishop Aupetit. He ironically underscored that a “good-willed” neighbor
had acted as an informer, “warning” the police.
“It is formally prohibited” for armed
policemen to enter into a church, he insisted, because the parish priest alone
has power of policing in his church: the police may only enter without his
permission when there is a “threat to the public order.” In the case of
Saint-André, the parish priest had been careful to close the door so that no
public would enter.
“They need to keep their heads and
stop this nonsense,” the Bishop added. “Otherwise, we will speak out and, in
case of confinement, bark very loudly.”
One member of the French National
Assembly, Marie-France Lorho, also reacted strongly, in a letter to the French
Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner.
The letter was made public by Mrs
Lorho, deputy of the southern département of the
Vaucluse, on her website.
In her letter, having recalled the
rules about police entry into churches, she stated that the interruption of a
religious service constitutes “an extremely grave act” which can even in
certain cases amount to a “profanation.”
“No health crisis can in fact justify
such an attack on freedom of worship,” she wrote, quoting the March 23 decree
that specifically allows private Masses. “Does the minister intend to recall
his instructions to his police forces? Does the minister intend to state more
clearly than the decree of March 23, that it in no way impedes in any way
whatsoever the celebration of Masses behind closed doors? Finally, does the
Minister intend to punish the dubious denunciations which are flourishing
against religious services?”
There has been no answer to date.
The Saint-André incident was not, in
fact, the first of its kind. During the Easter night, the traditionalist parish
of Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet in Paris was also targeted by police after
neighbors complained that a “clandestine” Mass was taking place: it was in fact
the Easter vigil that had been widely announced and was being broadcast via
Internet. The film showed that the pews were empty.
The religious affairs editor of the
weekly Le Point, Aziz Zemouri, presented the incident as a serious
breach of public security regarding the COVID-19 epidemic and claimed that the
celebrating priest had allowed a number of parishioners to attend in violation
of current regulations. One of those parishioners, wrote Zemouri, had left the
celebration at around midnight and warned the police. Many French media picked
up the story, with disparaging remarks about the FSSPX parish. The main French
semi-public news agency AFP illustrated the story with a photo of the nave of
Saint-Nicolas filled with parishioners.
The unlikely story was later denied
by the prior of Saint-Nicolas, who also clarified that contrary to media
reports he had not been fined. According to some sources it was the police
chief who led the intervention who (spitefully) told the story to the press.
Another Parisian church, Saint-Eugène
Sainte-Cécile, where traditional “Summorum Pontificum” Masses are celebrated on
a daily basis, was also “visited” by the police on April 16 during the 7
PM Mass. On that occasion, the priest having omitted to close the church doors
during the celebration, some 15 parishioners had entered the church, staying at
the back and respecting rules for social distancing. But their presence was
still deemed illegal.
The parish priest went to see the
mayor of the “arrondissement” next day and apparently the incident went no
further.
One lay Catholic who drove to confess
in a monastery near his home in the country shortly before Easter was fined
because his travel was deemed “not essential” by local “gendarmes” although
visits to one’s place of worship are explicitly allowed by confinement rules on
the website of the French Interior Ministry.
An increasing number of priests and
lay associations are complaining about the strict prohibition of public Masses
in France, while at the same time supermarkets, wine shops, garden centers and
public transport are open to the public.
President Emmanuel Macron has
announced that partial loosening of lockdown will (or may…) take place on May
11, but has already made clear that public Masses and other religious
ceremonies will not be allowed before the middle of June.
He said so in a video conference with
faith leaders and heads of Masonic organisations last Monday, shortly after
having had a 45-minute telephone conversation with Pope Francis, during which
the question of the prohibition of religious services was not addressed,
according to a presidential spokesman.
Meanwhile, millions of Muslims living
in France will start Ramadan celebrations as of Friday. The Interior Minister
Castaner said recently that public celebrations will not be allowed in mosques.
On the other hand, the prefect of police of the Bouches-du-Rhône which includes
the port of Marseille where large numbers of Muslims live has already said that
the police could not “prevent” Muslims living in the same apartment buildings
from visiting each other during Ramadan.
Visiting neighbors, under current
regulations, normally incurs a fine of 135 euro (about 150 dollars) per
offender.
Related: COVID-19: This monster “priest” is reporting a fellow priest for saying mass!
Related: COVID-19: This monster “priest” is reporting a fellow priest for saying mass!
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