REPORTAGE
A week after the fire in Nantes cathedral, a volunteer from the diocese confessed and was remanded in custody overnight from Saturday to Sunday. The motivations of this 39-year-old man from Rwanda, however, remain unclear. In Nantes, the arrest of this volunteer shocked the inhabitants. "You have to be crazy, it's a sacred place. You don't touch the church," said one of them, interviewed by Europe 1.
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"It's definitely dementia"
The little tourist train that takes Nantes around has not yet had time to update the presentation on the cathedral. No allusion, therefore, to the fire of July 18. But on board, François-Noël, who comes from the neighboring Vendée, has a loving gaze on this disfigured western facade. And he is especially shocked by the criminal motive of the incident. "It hurts the heart because Nantes is our region," he laments. "Then we found out that it was criminal. Why did the person do that? It's definitely dementia."
"I can't understand his act"
Pascal and Christine, two Nantes residents who claim to be atheists, also say they are marked by the gesture of the diocesan volunteer. They do not also understand why it was he who was responsible for closing the building. "I told myself that it is not possible. I can not understand his act", indignant Pascal. "I am scandalized, angry, and I have so much hatred in my heart about what happened ... The priests, they are the ones who run the church. It is up to them to to open, to close the cathedral, ”says Christine.
The cathedral will now remain closed for the duration of the work, no doubt for several years. With, perhaps, the hope of a partial reopening on the sidelines of the site.