Armed Policemen Burst Into a Parisian Church And Stop a Mass

Case information
Incident date
Country
France
Place
Paris
Categories
  • Government Restrictions
Attack Against
  • Faith
Societal Sphere
  • Governmental
Religious Freedom / Discrimination
  • Other (text field)
  • Lawsuit
  • Contractual Freedom
  • Freedom of Association and Assembly
  • Freedom of Religion
Place of Incident
  • Church
Bias Indicators
  • Significance of Property/Structure/Location to religious community
  • Time/Place/Location
Reported to Police
  • Yes
Response of Local Authorities
  • Unknown
Image credit: Kelly Sikkema on Unsplash

On Sunday 19th April, three armed policemen burst into the church and ordered the priest to stop the mass.The parish priest of Saint-Andre-de-l'Europe was celebrating a Holy Mass with an Online broadcast for his parishioners in confinement. Inside the Church there were seven people, all involved in the celebration. The parish priests recall that the police is not allowed to enter a church with weapons, according to the law. The police can only intervene in a sanctuary at the request of the parish priest or in case of an emergency. One of the parishioners was also a policeman, who talked to the officers. It seems that a neighbour had alerted the police.

Sources