France's Cathedrals on Fire: 'The Final Stage of De-Christianization'? by Giulio Meotti  •  July 25, 2020 at 5:00 am       "The desecration continues to grow in Europe. Recent acts on statues of the Virgin Mary in French churches show how much these gestures are the result of barbaric hatred. They call for reactions. Catholics can no longer remain silent". — Cardinal Robert Sarah, January 10, 2020. "We must try everything, while it is still possible, to save our civilization. Our civilization is the Greek, Roman, Judeo-Christian heritage". — Alain Finkielkraut, author, L'Opinon, December 17, 2013. If France keeps failing to protect its Christian identity, France as we know it will cease to exist; it will become a different place entirely. If France keeps failing to protect its Christian identity, France as we know it will cease to exist. The recent fire at the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of Nantes on July 18 is believed to have been started deliberately. Only a year ago, a massive blaze nearly totally gutted the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris. After that, the historic Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris caught fire, as well as the Basilica of Saint Denis. Pictured: Firefighters work to put out the flames at the Cathedral of Nantes on July 18, 2020. (Photo by Sebastien Salom-Gomis/AFP via Getty Images) A leading curator of New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, Keith Christiansen, was criticized for posting on Instagram a painting of Alexandre Lenoir saving France's monuments from the ravages of the French Revolution. Christiansen wrote: "Alexandre Lenoir battling the revolutionary zealots bent on destroying the royal tombs in Saint Denis. How many great works of art have been lost to the desire to rid ourselves of a past of which we don't approve. And how grateful we are to people like Lenoir who realized that their value — both artistic and historical — extended beyond a defining moment of social and political upheaval and change". Christiansen was criticizing the current removal and desecration of historic monuments. He could not have known that, a few weeks later, another French cathedral would be vandalized and an ancient organ, which had survived Lenoir's revolutionary zealots, destroyed by the blaze. Continue Reading Article