Nuns Leave Nantes City Centre After Constant Insecurity
On 3 March, the newspaper "Le Figaro" published an interview with two nuns who were forced to leave the centre of Nantes because of hostility and insecurity. They are called Sister Agathe and Sister Marie-Anne and they are moving to another place called Reims. The sisters argue that they are exhausted by the insecurity and have been subjected to "blows, spitting and insults".
The two nuns have been living in the centre of Nantes for eight years and are planning to move out in July. On Sunday 26 February, this sisters from the Apostolic Benedictine Fraternity published a long statement explaining their reasons for leaving. The district of Bouffay, where they live, has become "too often the scene of our society's problems - day and night - and daily life there is tiring in the long run".
The "blows, spitting, insults" they have experienced and been confronted with are multiplying, says Sister Agathe. "It comes in waves, unexpectedly." Since June, the municipal police have intervened ten times around the church and 27 times in the surrounding area. A few years ago, the sisters even "took some lessons in self-defence". Last month it was decided to close one of the entrances to the church to avoid any inconvenience. They believe, the increase in violence that we are witnessing will not be resolved by a greater police presence.
"It is scandalous that it is they who have to move," Foulques Chombart de Lauwe, an opposition councillor in Nantes, told Le Figaro. The elected representative of the majority, Gildas Salaün, admitted that this was not normal, but said on behalf of the town hall that "it is not for us to comment on this decision, which is theirs". As far as the nuns are concerned, the deputy for the city centre district insists on the arrival of reinforcements: "The Place Sainte-Croix, the Passage Sainte-Croix, the Jardin Sainte-Croix are part of a perimeter in which we pay a lot of attention to security and public order. Our agents carry out pedestrian patrols. There are dozens of them every week".
According to the sisters, the "constant state of alertness prevents us from living prayer as it is lived in our Benedictine vocation". "We are not called to be security guards".
Source: Le Figaro
Symbolic Image: Pixabay