She doesn’t know the rules of rugby but when she has to defend her ground, Sister Benoîte knows how to tackle an eco-friendly person! The video of this nun causing an environmental activist to fall has animated social networks all week, the day after the elimination of the Blues in the World Cup. But beyond this comic scene worthy of Don Camillo, serious issues are raised by the work project of the FMND (Missionary Family of Notre-Dame), the real reason for the confrontation. And heavy accusations weigh on these nuns: ecological danger, sectarian excesses… For what reality?
Perched in the Ardèche mountain, the statue of Notre-Dame des Neiges was erected on December 15, 1946, to the great joy of the villagers of Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier. This is the beginning of the founding of the FMND. Seventy years later, the community has grown, it brings together brothers and sisters, and continues the mission of “educating souls in Beautiful Love”. It is because more and more pilgrims are flocking (more than 2,000 people present for the feast of Our Lady of the Snows) that the congregation decided to enlarge the site, for logistical and security reasons. The project of discord was then born, in two stages: the construction of a parking lot for pilgrim buses, a footbridge and a reception building, on one side, the construction of a large church which can accommodate up to 3,500 worshippers, on the other.
For state services, the work has no impact on the environment
In December 2018, the building permit was accepted and the work began peacefully. In 2020, the first oppositions began with Zadist activists coming to interrupt the project. They illegally occupy the site which they consider “harmful to the environment”. However, we are not talking here about a nuclear power plant or an oil spill… The prefect of Ardèche then says: “The file is perfect, we are going to make it more perfect. » Begins an environmental study over four seasons by the Naturalia-Environnement agency, an independent company, followed by a state analysis. Verdict? “The work can resume without any danger for protected species. »
The following ? A legal saga (the building permit is contested on appeal after a first victory for the community in March 2023 before the Lyon court), and demonstrations in front of the current church occupied by the Missionary Family of Notre-Dame, a few hundred meters from the construction site.
Since October 12, a milestone has been reached in the violence: opponents are preventing the work by chaining themselves to excavators using PVC pipes. They are advocates of Jacquin’s Réséda plant. It would have been spotted during a visit, the legality of which is still to be verified, and would have been attacked by the earthworks of the land. However, it is completely protected and the authorizations attest that the work will not harm it.
For Brother Clément-Marie, a member of the community, “it is only the latest avatar of the activists. After the spiny toad and the yellow-bellied ringer (another species of amphibians, editor’s note), it is the turn of the Reseda. As soon as one topic is filed, another arrives. » Here again, two criminal complaints were filed for destruction of habitat and protected species, but dismissed. Despite this, environmentalists are not giving up. It seems that their fierce resistance goes beyond ecology.
“Farmers, hunters, religion, what underpins the rural environment is under attack”
“They don’t care about ecology, they’re just anti-priests! » These are the words of Nathalie, a Colombier resident for fifty years, who expresses her anger at the incessant attacks by activists against the FMND. Yes, the debate is above all ideological: feminists, antifas, CGT, these are those who responded to the call to demonstrate by the collective Les Ami.es de la Bourges (local river, editor’s note) last July. What link with ecology? The question is valid. “It’s because we are religious and we represent certain values that they condemn us,” says Brother Clément-Marie. Ecology seems to be just a pretext and masks other intentions. The slogans speak for themselves: “anti-abortion”, “leave it concrete, God is dead”, “fundamentalists”. Guillaume, a young farmer, declares with his strong Ardèche accent: “One day we attack the farmers, then the hunters and now religion: everything that forms the foundation of the rural environment. »
The prefecture reaffirmed in a press release, on October 20, the current state of the site: “At this stage, the elements brought to the attention of the prefect do not change the situation. Also, the prefectural decree of November 29, 2022 deciding to resume work remains in force. » The State gives authorizations but does not allow them to be applied to those who oppose them. The gendarmes, present in recent days, never received the order to evacuate the activists. Abandoned, the community must therefore defend itself by its own means. During the World Cup, it was therefore a tackle.
2023-10-23 06:05:45
#true #story #nuns #tackle
