Reporters and employees of the DRAC (Regional Cultural Affairs Bureau) visited the St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral in Nantes, western France, on June 30, 2021. It has been nearly a year since it was severely damaged by the fire.
- On Monday, a Rwandan refugee allegedly started a fire that destroyed the cathedral and murdered a Catholic priest.
- Less than a year before the presidential election, the attack immediately triggered a new dispute between the far right and the government over immigration.
- Father Olivier Maire, 60, was killed in the town of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre in the religious community of Montfortains where he lived, where the suspect also took refuge.
Officials said a Rwandan refugee was suspected of causing a fire in the cathedral in the southern French city of Nantes last Monday and murdering a Catholic priest in western France.
Less than a year before the presidential election, the attack immediately triggered a new quarrel between the far-right and the government over immigration, which is expected to become bigger and bigger.
Father Olivier Maire, 60, was killed in the town of Saint-Laurent-sur-Sevre in the religious community of Montfortains where he lived, where the suspect also took refuge.
Yannick Le Goater, deputy prosecutor of La-Roche-Sur-Yon, said that “there was no terrorist motive” in the case and named the suspect Emmanuel Abayissenga.
He said that Abayissenga gave the military police a key to open the room where Maie’s body was located.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin called the murder “tragic” on Twitter and said he would go to the scene.
A source close to the investigation stated that a man had earlier reported the incident to the police in the town of Mortagne-sur-Sevre and claimed that he had killed a priest. The source added that the man was already under judicial control in the Nantes Cathedral fire in July 2020.
The source, who asked not to be named, said that the priest had been welcoming the man into his church for several months. He appears to have been beaten to death, but an autopsy will now be performed.
Abaysenga confessed that he was behind the fire in Nantes Cathedral, which shocked France.
He was initially arrested and then released under judicial control. He had been receiving treatment in a psychiatric hospital, but left the facility in late July after receiving treatment for about a month.
Sources close to the investigation said that late Monday, the suspect’s judicial control was deemed “inconsistent with his health” and he was re-hospitalized.
Marina Le Pen, the far-right leader who accused the government of being weak on immigration, caught the killing, saying that in France “you can become an illegal immigrant and set a cathedral on fire instead of being deported and then murder a person. Sin again. Pastor.”
Dammanin immediately accused her of “arguing without knowing the facts”, saying that as long as he was under judicial control, the man could not be expelled from France.
When Le Pen challenges centrist Emmanuel Macron for the presidency next year, immigration will become a major issue.
In October last year, a radical Islamist from Tunisia killed three people in a church in Nice. France is highly vigilant about the risk of attacks on the church. However, sources close to the investigation emphasized that the killing did not seem to be related to terrorist activities.
Their office said Macron “expressed all his sympathy” for his Mongfortan religious group, while Jean Castex expressed his “deep frustration” and “deep sympathy.”
The Nantes fire occurred 15 months after the devastating fire at Notre Dame de Paris in 2019, which raised questions about the safety risks of other historical churches in France. The man had served as a volunteer in the Nantes church.
Although firefighters controlled the Nantes fire and saved the main structure in just two hours, its famous organ dates back to 1621 and survived the bombing of the French Revolution and World War II.
Priceless handicrafts and paintings were also lost, including works by 19th-century artist Jean-Hippolyte Flandrin and stained glass windows with 16th-century glass remnants. Repairs will take several years.
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