One of 100 ancient churches identified for preservation by France’s Patrimony Foundation, this church is in Cachen, located within the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of southwestern France. / Credit: Wikimedia Commons
CNA Staff, Jun 4, 2024 / 06:00 am (CNA).
The danger that has been threatening France’s religious heritage for decades is becoming a matter of concern to the authorities and the general public.
As experts estimate that the country loses a religious building every 15 days, the country’s leading historical preservation nonprofit “Fondation du Patrimoine” (“Patrimony Foundation”) has launched a campaign aimed at restoring a thousand buildings, the vast majority of which are Catholic, in rural areas of the country.
This is the first time that the nonprofit organization, founded in 1996 to promote French heritage, has launched such a major campaign to raise awareness and preserve religious monuments. As part of the campaign, the foundation released a list of the first 100 sites to benefit from renovation funding.
The grants are aimed primarily at religious buildings in municipalities with fewer than 10,000 inhabitants in mainland France and fewer than 20,000 inhabitants in the French overseas territories, which cannot be protected by the French state as historical monuments.
Since the French Revolution (1789), which nationalized clergy property, and the 1905 law separating church and state, most religious heritage has belonged to municipalities, which are often unable to meet the costs of maintaining the sites. The preservation of historic places of worship also tends to be at the bottom of their budget priorities.
Of the 45,000 Catholic sites in France, only 15,000 are classified as historical monuments, as the president of the French Religious Heritage Observatory pointed out in a 2021 interview with CNA. For its part, the Patrimony Foundation estimates that some 5,000 religious monuments are currently directly threatened with extinction.
This list of the 100 sites selected by the foundation — spread throughout the French territory and most of which required urgent work — represents just the first ambitious move in a vast project to rehabilitate some 1,000 religious buildings over the next four years. The aim is to raise a total of 200 million euros (about $218 million) through corporate and individual donations.
The first subscription, which runs until the end of 2025 and includes special tax deductions, currently stands at just over 2.6 million euros ($2.8 million), thanks to the participation of some 14,000 people.
While this sum is still a long way short of the 15 million expected for the first 100 monuments awaiting renovation, Patrimony Foundation officials are noticing a new awareness on the ground, which is tending to become more widespread as the need grows to enhance the value of rural life and all that can represent anchoring and rallying points for communities.
“Even if they no longer go to Mass, [the French] are attached to their monument, to the steeple that gives them their identity, that establishes a landmark in space. People don’t want us to do just anything with their church,” Guillaume Poitrinal, president of the Patrimony Foundation, told the weekly Le Point.
He also pointed to a “Notre-Dame effect” in this growing public awareness of the decay of France’s heritage, of which religious monuments form a substantial part. Following the fire at the famous Paris cathedral in 2019, the images of which stunned and moved the whole world, some 40 million euros ($44 million) had been donated via the same Patrimony Foundation by 236,000 different donors.
If the campaign achieves its objectives, it could pave the way for additional large-scale initiatives, marking a real turning point in mindsets and heritage preservation policies.
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I can’t remember one way or another, of course, but I am wondering how many bishops issued condemnations of violence directed toward Republican politicians over the last few years. The attack on Rand Paul? The attempted massacre of the Republican Congressional softball team? The swatting of Marjorie Taylor Greene? I also wonder if all the facts related to the Pelosi attack have been disclosed.
One fact is that he’s a leftist who’s been labled a “right wing extremist.”
Prayers for Mr Pelosi. May the Lord be close to comfort and bless him with healing!
Jeremiah 17:14 Heal me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved, for you are my praise.
1 Peter 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. By his wounds you have been healed.
Jeremiah 3:15 ‘And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding.
Blessings of comfort for his family. May the person who did this repent and turn his life over to Christ.
Absolutely do not care what archbishop prays for anyone. His prayers don’t matter any more than mine.
Let us pray for all unbaptized infants in the womb, for those we neglect in prayer.
Let us pray for the infants assaulted by steel instruments of health care. Let us pray for the infants who succumb to such health care. Let us pray for the infants, assaulted by steel and plastic suction devices. Let us pray for the infants who succumb to instruments of health care. Let us pray for the infants whose assaults are made possible by people who speak of access to health care, —- let us pray for them, for their parents, for our doctors, and for all in our nation who hope such horror to continue.
Is God giving some people a wake-up call? May our eyes be opened.
May Mr. Pelosi and his family return to the good health, peace, and joy as God does will.