Two days after the fire at the Immaculate Conception church in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais), it was time for contemplation on the morning of Wednesday, September 4. A moment of prayer took place.
“We saved it once, we will save it a second time.” Two days after the fire at the Immaculate Conception church in Saint-Omer (Pas-de-Calais), it was time for contemplation on the morning of Wednesday, September 4. A moment of prayer took place in front of the damaged church.
The mayor of the town, François Decoster, had reassuring words. “We saved it once, we will save it a second time,” he assured.
“The community is still alive”
Around fifty people gathered in front of the Church of the Immaculate Conception, including the faithful, but also representatives of other religions.
“There was a very present community of believers, but there were also representatives of other religions who were there, notably from the mosques of Saint-Omer, and local residents. It was a moment, I hope a little comforting, where together in the disarray, we wanted to be gathered together,” explained Mgr Olivier Leborgne, Bishop of Arras, on BFM Grand Littoral.
Other parishioners also felt the need to come together. “It was important for the people and the community that came together. The church may have burned down, but the community is here, still alive,” said one. While another added: “I was baptized, I took my communion, I got married. This is my church.”
The roof of the church was completely destroyed by the fire. The vault and the bell tower also collapsed. But “we were able to save the most important thing, the tabernacle, the holy hosts,” Father Sébastien Roussel said on BFMTV on Tuesday, September 3.
A man, born in 1985, was taken into custody on the evening of Monday, September 2. He admitted to the facts and had already been convicted of “damaging a religious building,” the prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday, September 4. He admitted to breaking into the church, according to him with the aim of stealing money from the boxes, then setting it on fire, Saint-Omer public prosecutor Mehdi Benbouzid told AFP.
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