France’s bishops appealed for an end to violence after a weekend of riots in which several buildings burned, shops were looted nationwide, and a Lyon interreligious peace march was postponed.
French bishops have appealed for an end to violence after a weekend of rioting in which public buildings were burned, shops were looted nationwide, and a Lyon interreligious peace march was postponed.
“I call on everyone not to be swept up in the spiral of this violence: Our city and our country deserve better than this,” Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, archbishop of Marseille and president of the French bishops’ conference, said in an Oct. 18 communiqué.
In Marseille, he wrote, “shops were looted, churches broken into, the city hall invaded and damaged, a police station ransacked, and members of the police attacked.” The archdiocese has not said which churches were entered.
Archbishop Olivier de Germay of Lyon said in a statement on X that his city “was the scene of clashes, hatred, destruction, and looting that are unacceptable.”
“I am well aware that this violence is the sign of a society that is unwell, but I want to state forcefully once again that it is a dead end,” he wrote.
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