Tabernacle and Holy Sacrament Desecrated in Billière
Vandals broke in the XIIth century church of Saint Laurent de Billière, near Pau, on Friday, October 29th. The tabernacle was forced opened and the consecrated hosts scattered on the ground.
“Nothing valuable was taken away, which leads us to believe it is a voluntary act of desecration”, said Father François Matta, the parish priest. “The tabernacle is the spiritual treasure of the Church,” he adds. Informed of this vandalism, Mgr Marc Aillet, bishop of Bayonne, sent a statement in which he says: “I want to express to the faithful of this diocese my astonishment and deep indignation. I can not help wondering about the moral responsibility of certain media who nurture in French society a particularly unhealthy climate of anti-Catholicism and who consistently ignore desecrations or vandalism when they are not targeted against our Jewish or Muslims brothers.” Sources: http://www.sudouest.fr/2010/10/29/profanation-a-billere-224914-3921.php http://www.larepubliquedespyrenees.fr/2010/10/29/billere-des-vandales-a-l-eglise,163396.php