“The church may be burned, but the community is there, always alive,” said a Catholic laywoman after a moment of prayer held this Wednesday, September 4, in the atrium of the church of the Immaculate Conception in Saint-Omer, department of Pas -de-Calais (France), after the fire that destroyed the temple.
In statements to the local media BFMTV and after the prayer presided over by the Bishop of Arras, Bishop Olivier Leborgne, this morning, the woman highlighted that “it has been important for the population and for the community that has gathered.”
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In statements to the aforementioned French media, Bishop Leborgne highlighted for his part that in the prayer “there was really a believing community very present and there were also some representatives of other religions, mainly from the mosques of Saint-Omer, and other inhabitants of the area. ”.
“It has been a moment, I hope, of a little consolation, in which we all wanted to be united together,” said the prelate.
The incident, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday, September 1 to Monday, September 2, seriously affected the church that had been restored in 2018, but fortunately it did not leave any victims. Priest Sébastien Roussel further noted that he was able to rescue the Blessed Sacrament when the fire was partially controlled.
The 39-year-old suspect, detained by the authorities, had already admitted to having started the fire in the church of the Immaculate Conception, after having stolen the money that was there.
The mayor of Saint-Omer, François Decoster, commented on the church and the restoration process carried out in 2018, that “we have already saved it once, we will save it a second time.”
At the conclusion of the moment of prayer this Wednesday, the bishop prayed the following prayer with those present, which diocese of Arras attributed to Saint John Paul II
Oh comforting Mother,
you who know our pains and our sorrows,
you who have suffered from Bethlehem to Calvary,
comfort all those who suffer in body and soul,
to all those who are in dispersion and discouragement,
to all who experience a burning need to love and give.
O comforting Mother, comfort us all,
Help us understand that the secret of happiness is in the faithfulness and goodness of your son Jesus.
We glorify you and offer you thanksgiving now and always.
Amen.
Walter Sanchez Silva
I have been a husband since 2008. My wife and I have three children here and one who went to heaven in 2023, before he was born. Since I joined ACI Prensa in 2005, I have had the opportunity to cover various events of the Catholic Church. Among them, the World Youth Days in Cologne, Madrid and Rio de Janeiro and the apostolic trips of Pope Benedict XVI to Mexico and of Pope Francis to South Korea. I have been sent to the Vatican to cover the Family synods, in 2015; of the Amazon, in 2019 and that of Synodality, in 2023. I closely follow the situation of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua, which suffers persecution from the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega, as well as current ecclesiastical events in the region.