Paris, France, May 31, 2021 / 04:00 am
The archbishop of Paris on Sunday lamented an attack on Catholics taking part in a procession commemorating the city’s 19th-century martyrs.
Archbishop Michel Aupetit deplored May 30 the “anger, contempt and violence” directed at the group of around 300 Catholics, including children and elderly people, taking part in the “March of the Martyrs.”
“We are troubled that what we preach -- a God of love -- can arouse so much hatred, so much anger,” he said. “Last night, here, there was a demonstration of anger, contempt, and violence.”
The archbishop was speaking at a Mass marking the 150th anniversary of the Catholic martyrs of the Paris Commune at the Church of Notre-Dame-des-Otages, built in honor of hostages killed on May 26, 1871.