« JI was born there. I did all my catechesis there », Protests Corinne who discovered on December 5 a poster “permanent closure following the sale of the premises”. “ There were several of us taking care of this church which has been closed for five years. We were cleaning up the graffiti. For me, a poor parishioner of color, it is important to be here. It is a good for all believers which creates social bonds “, she emphasizes. The diocese which does not respond to its letters has just relocated the Friends of Saint-Vincent team which has been there for 40 years. From now on, volunteers distribute food packages for 313 precarious families from 10e at 7 boulevard Saint-Jean. The OCB library also had to go.
« The sales project has not been confirmed. Discussions are underway with stakeholders. The time for communication has not come », replies Amaury Guillem, the communications director of the diocese who emphasizes that “ it's a church in very poor condition which was no longer used ». It will not be said that diocesan finances have not recovered from the Pope's 2.3 million euro visit to Marseille in September 2023. « Considerations are underway to assign it to other uses. Not a restaurant, nor a nightclub, but a choice consistent with Christian values, with a social commitment to the service of the neighborhood, an equipment which is part of the continuity of the values that people of the Church have carried. »
The Saint-Maurice church was built in 1962 on a plot of 1,700m2 by the architect Auguste Vivès who signed this audacious self-supporting nave in the shape of an ellipsoidal shell worthy of the Remarkable Contemporary Architecture label. Its stained glass windows are by master glassmaker Henri Guérin. Polish sculptor Lech Wardecki made the statues of Christ and Mary from wood taken from the construction site. Its concrete sail which supports the bell tower catches the eye on Boulevard Romain Rolland. Rudy Ricciotti built the Regional Road Information and Coordination Center (CRICR) right next door in 1992. Corinne and her husband Bernard wrote to him as they challenged Martine Vassal, Renaud Muselier and Mayor Benoît Payan reminding the latter that it is the neighborhood of his childhood and that the neighboring district of Capelette has already suffered from the demolition of its 1654 chapel razed in 2014 for a project real estate.
It was the priest Charles Sighieri who arrived in 2017 who closed the church in December 2019 citing security reasons which were not convincing. The man has since been sentenced in May 2023 to a two-year suspended prison sentence followed by three years of probation for two sexual assaults (The Provence of November 7, 2023). He had been transferred from Auriol to this parish in eastern Marseille. Parishioners revere the memory of priest Jean-François Vincent who stayed there for 13 years and who died on his 60th birthday on October 10, 2015. This jovial, dynamic field missionary also inspired Les Exploits d'Odilon Verjus, a comic strip by Yann Le Pennetier and Laurent Verron.
This parish then functioned very well with the OCB library, the “friends of Saint Vincent” and “Mama Jeanine” who died in 2016 who helped the most disadvantaged. The parish opened its rooms to family events, weddings, baptisms, and trustee meetings. “ Bringing the Pope to the Vélodrome is a pleasure, but the Roman collars who say at mass that we must help the poor, what are they doing with associations that create social bonds? in a neighborhood that is sorely lacking ? » asks Bernard who is going to launch an online petition to save this place before real estate development devours it.
