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New Caledonia’s Catholic community is in shock and disbelief after two of its historic missions were burned down by mobs this week.
The 165-year-old Catholic church in Saint-Louis, near Noumea, was destroyed in flames on Tuesday.
The iconic church was the last building standing after a mob engaged in a gun battle with French gendarmes that also burned down the mission’s presbytery house and the residence of the Marist Sisters.
On Tuesday, July 16, 2024, a fire broke out in the main building of St. Louis Mission Church
photo: Radio Regulations Board
A man who was killed last week while firing from the old church was the nephew of St. Louis Grand Chief and independent figure in Congress President Roche Wamitan.
Archbishop Calvert of Noumea told local media NC la Première that he was in a state of shock like everyone else.
Archbishop Calvert at the site of the destruction of St. Louis Cathedral
photo: NC Lal
“This is not something that happened by chance… Those people wanted to destroy. A few days ago, they destroyed several mission buildings, threatening the religious community there and forcing them to evacuate.
So it’s shocking that when young people have never had the rules of society and the common good explained to them, they can do anything.
Some young thugs even said it was just “for the sake of being crazy.”
This means they don’t see the harm, … but at the same time, it is serious, especially for those who take advantage of the naivety of young people,” he said.
On July 18, 2024, a fire broke out in Vao Church
photo: Disaster Recovery
On Thursday evening, another landmark Catholic mission in the village of Wao on the Isle of Pines (near Noumea) was also set on fire.
Both missions are considered the cradle of Catholicism in New Caledonia and were established in the 1860s.
New Caledonian President Louis Mapou condemned the crimes in a statement on Friday as “irresponsible acts”, saying they undermine the values of fraternity and sharing that New Caledonian society upholds.
“No amount of outrage can adequately explain this phenomenon,” he wrote.
Monique Wilicek, an expert on the history of the St. Louis Mission, told local media that parishioners were deeply saddened.
“Because this is the work of their ancestors, it is part of all the mixed communities for more than 160 years, the Malabar people, the sugarcane people, the rice people, the Japanese, the Vietnamese, the mine people… This is a turning page in history,” she said.
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