Prosecutor’s have opened an investigation into the desecration of a church in Nîmes, France. The church of Notre-Dame des Enfants was attacked last week and a cross was drawn on a wall with excrement on which pieces of consecrated hosts were stuck. The tabernacle was broken and other consecrated hosts were destroyed.

The Bishop of Nîmes, Robert Wattebled, issued a statement that aid the desecration shocked the whole diocesan community and the church would have to close until a purification could be effected. “The sign of the cross and the Blessed Sacrament have been the subject of serious injurious actions. This act of profanation hurts us all in our deepest convictions. Under these conditions, worship can no longer be celebrated in this building until the profanation has been repaired by a penitential rite whose date is not yet fixed” he said.

He added: “Already, the Carmelites, Cistercians and Poor Clares of the Diocese have agreed to observe a day of fasting and worship, as compensation for acts of vandalism. In their own way, all the Catholic communities will be able to associate themselves with this prayer, in the way that will seem appropriate to them.”