Fire and blood

Despite the declarations of the Minister of the Interior, the death of Father Mayor is the direct result of the carelessness of the State

Is it permissible to feel anger at the assassination of a priest, or is it betraying what the deceased had dedicated his life to? May others answer this question, and may Father Olivier Maire, if necessary, forgive me: his death revolts me, and I fully intend to denounce those responsible, and the unworthy reactions of those who would watch without flinching the All of France suffered the same fate.

The path of the murderer, Emmanuel Abayisenga, had been traced with humanity in The cross by Héloïse de Neuville, at the time when this Rwandan rejected his asylum request was still “only” the arsonist of the Cathedral of Nantes. Mentally disturbed, but also driven, it seems, by the rage at having been refused what absurd propaganda had presented to him as due – as if France were only a geographical space open to all , and that the French had for only destiny to provide enough to pay annuities called “aid” to whoever would come to claim them.

Emmanuel Abayisenga should have been expelled

Father Olivier Maire and the other religious of his community had since chosen to host him in spite of everything among themselves in Saint-Laurent-sur-Sèvre. Generous gesture, more perhaps than one imagines. Who knows what would have happened if the missionary brothers from Montfort had not welcomed him? Who knows if, left to himself, he would not have attacked someone at random in the street, who knows if he would not have killed a child? A question to which we will obviously never have an answer, but it is quite possible that Father Olivier Maire, in fact, gave his life to save others. May he be thanked forever, with all the brothers of his missionary community.

Still, this welcome should not have taken place. It shouldn’t have been necessary. Why was Emmanuel Abayisenga not deported in 2019, once his asylum request was refused? Why, after voluntarily setting the cathedral on fire in 2020, was he not expelled, incarcerated, or locked in a mental hospital – or at least, why did he come out when he was clearly still dangerous ? Criminal negligence of the State, of which this situation is only one particular case among others, manifestly voluntary neglect as similar situations are numerous.

And the statements of Gérald Darmanin who tries to wash his hands of this tragedy are as pathetic as they are outrageous. “This foreigner was not deportable despite his deportation order” affirms the minister, wording of which it is revealing that he did not feel the odious absurdity, “As long as its judicial review was not lifted. “ Has he forgotten that a government not only submits to the law, it also proposes to Parliament to amend it? Has he forgotten that elected officials are responsible for the laws they pass, but also for those they choose to keep as they are when they are the source of obvious dysfunctions?

“We consider that a foreigner who has committed a serious act no longer has his place in France” Yet declared Gérald Darmanin on May 8. Does this mean that burning a cathedral is not a serious act? Ah, but it’s because of the judicial review! Will the magistrates who have decided not to incarcerate him therefore be held accountable? Will the Keeper of the Seals be accountable? Ah, but it’s because of his psychiatric condition! Will the experts who chose to let him out of the hospital be held accountable? Ah, but…. But, always but: the excuses accumulate, the observation remains, the government is as ineffective in the face of real dangers as it is authoritarian in the face of ordinary citizens, the state has failed and a good and generous man has died.

Indignant, too, this declaration of Emmanuel Macron: “Protecting those who believe is a priority. “ No: the priority is to protect all French people, regardless of whether they believe it or not, and Emmanuel Macron did not do it. His government and his majority did not. The result is there, bloody and relentless: the murderer of Father Olivier Maire should have been expelled in 2019, and was not.

Unworthy, and even infamous: why “Those who believe” ? Is it because it would be irrelevant to protect those who do not believe – atheists, train your battalions, the state does not care about your fate? Is it because Emmanuel Macron imagines that only believers feel concerned by the death of a believer, that only members of a “community” feel concerned by the death of “one of their own”? ? But we are the national community, and all French people are concerned by the atrocious murder of a Frenchman, even more so when this murder could have been avoided if the government had not so neglected in its duties. Dirty reflex of the one who does marketing instead of politics, and seeks only to woo electoral market share, instead of serving his people.

A prophetic death

How, finally, not to see what the death of Father Olivier Maire has of symbolism, and even prophetic? How can we fail to see that the blood of this priest also falls on the Church? How can we fail to see that he is exactly what Pope Francis – who received his murderer in 2016 – calls the whole of Europe to be? Generous, welcoming without limit, and… dead. “He will have lived in the following of Christ to the end, in the unconditional welcome of all” said Monsignor de Moulins-Beaufort. This “unconditional welcome from all” has a price, the blood of a priest and the death of men, the flames of a cathedral and the death of cultures. Asking peoples to pay this price is criminal, and it is not the act of a good shepherd: the good shepherd does not engage his sheep to open the doors of the sheepfold to the wolves. Europe is not intended to welcome all the tormented spirits of the world, nor France to become the asylum of the planet’s lunatics. And those who thus push our civilization and our people down the path of chaos are criminals of the worst kind.

In the hour of tragedy, in mourning and contemplation, in anger and thirst for justice, may the death of a priest make us listen to the words of another priest that are too little heard. Already in November 2000, in Berlin, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger – he was not yet Pope – denounced the real cause of the assassination of Father Olivier Maire:

“There is something strange about this which can only be considered as a pathological attitude: the West seems to hate itself. Of course, he tries to open himself with a lot of understanding to foreign values, but he no longer loves himself; of his own history, he now retains only what is deplorable and caused ruins, no longer being able to perceive what is great and beautiful. If it is to survive, Europe needs to accept itself again. “