An investigation is opened for intentional violence and obstruction of freedom of expression, after the cancellation of a concert in a church under pressure from the far-right Catholic movement “Civitas”.
An investigation has been opened in particular for willful violence and obstruction of freedom of expression, after a concert could not be held on Saturday in a church in Carnac (Morbihan) following a demonstration by fundamentalist Catholics, said the Lorient prosecutor’s office on Tuesday.
“An investigation entrusted to the gendarmerie is indeed in progress, in the state of the counts of obstacle to the freedom of expression, demonstration on the undeclared public road and voluntary violence without incapacity on a person depositary of the authority public, during a demonstration on the public highway”, detailed the prosecutor of the Republic of Lorient Stéphane Kellenberger.
The mayor of Carnac announced on Monday that he had filed a complaint after several dozen demonstrators close to Civitas, opposed to a concert by American organist Kali Malone, had prevented the event from taking place.
Concert approved by the bishopric
The concert was to take place in the Saint-Cornély church, in Carnac, a tourist town on the Breton coast, which has more than 4,000 inhabitants.
Saturday evening, “about forty young people with clear necks were hampered by violence, one of my assistants was slapped under the cries of ‘back Satan!’,” wrote Olivier Lepick, mayor of Carnac.
The mayor then took the decision to cancel the planned concert which was to attract around 200 spectators. “I could not tolerate that the violence of the demonstrators fell on a public who came peacefully to attend a concert or that our church suffered damage if by chance it had been necessary to evacuate the enlightened people by force”, he adds. on his Facebook page.
The city councilor points out that the concert, organized under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture and the departmental council, had been approved by the bishopric and the parish committee.
In a press release, the Brittany union of musicians CGT artists condemned an extreme right which “now claims to dictate its programming to show organizers”.
“If the members of Civitas or a similar group try again to prevent a show from being held in Brittany, they will have to expect to find CGT activists in front of them”, reacted the syndicate.
Tensions around a title
The diocese of Vannes also denounced the events of Saturday, stressing that “the Church could not be the place of any violence”.
“The parish discernment commission has never identified in the program any work contrary to the message of the Gospel which could have undermined the sacred dimension of the place”, indicates the diocese on its website.
“The title ‘sacer profanare’, which seems to have set fire to the powder, never appeared on the program presented for this concert”, adds the diocese.
On Twitter, Civitas referred to a “profanatory concert” and tweeted in Latin “Christus Vincit!” (Christ wins).
In a letter sent at the beginning of May to the Bishop of Vannes and published on the Internet, Civitas considered that “our churches are not concert halls at the mercy of the whims and desires of trendy and tendentious artists!”.
