‘I discovered the damage shortly after I opened the doors to the building at around 7.30am on Friday,’ says Nicolas Fritsch, sexton of the collegiate church in Colmar, who is still beside himself. According to the images from the parish’s video surveillance system, a single person was in the building from 0.15 a.m. to 3.00 a.m. and the alarm system was not triggered. Other videos from the municipal surveillance centre in Colmar are currently being investigated.
In the gallery through which you can walk around the choir of the church, the so-called Déambulatoire, two glass display cases were broken into. Three liturgical objects were removed and left in other places: a crucifix, which was found damaged, a chalice and an empty ciborium. Another ciborium, a sacred vessel that also contained no consecrated hosts, was found in the sacristy: The summit cross of its lid was broken. To get into the sacristy, the intruder had broken a wooden panel at the bottom of the door. Numerous pieces of furniture were ransacked, while boxes containing candles, among other things, were opened and knocked over.
‘No theft was detected,’ Marc Gerrer, president of the council said on Friday morning. “Was the intruder looking for solid gold or did he suddenly flee because he got scared? The items taken away are not worth much money, but the damaged ones need to be restored. Finally, he attacked three statuettes of no historical value: Yet one depicts the Virgin Mary, whose hands were broken off, another depicts Christ, one of whose hands was broken off, and the third depicts Christ with his cross, which was damaged as well as his hands. All this is quite incomprehensible”.
The material damage, which is still being assessed, will amount to more than €10,000. The attack on this place of worship, the symbolic collegiate church of Colmar, has triggered strong emotions. The mayor of Colmar, Eric Straumann, commented on Facebook: “The motives seem absurd, especially the damage to small statuettes whose hands were cut off. The collegiate church, where mass was cancelled on Friday, is due to reopen to the public on Saturday.
A few years ago, a person locked himself in the collegiate church and stole the money from the offering boxes. The National Police launched an investigation on Friday in anticipation of a complaint to be filed by the church board. That night, half a dozen shops and restaurants in neighbouring streets, also in the city centre, were hit by one or more burglars and cash was stolen.
Colmar. Intrusion nocturne et vandalisme à la collégiale Saint-Martin
It seems only Muslims want to destroy non Muslim places of worship around the world, whether it be churches, synagogues, Buddhists or Hindu temples.