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(LifeSiteNews) — A French priest was detained by police for over a day after blessing a church reportedly on the verge of being demolished.
Father Matthieu Salenave appeared on a French podcast Monday to explain the incident, which occurred in the town of Mayenne.
Salenave was sprinkling holy water on St. Gault Church, which was built in the 11th century, when the mayor drove up and approached him, demanding he leave the premises. Father started to leave in his car as police arrived on the scene. He continued back to his priory, only to have 10 law enforcement officials arrive several hours later. Salenave spent the next 36 hours in jail on charges that he committed violence against an elected official that he adamantly denies.
St. Gault is located in the commune of Quelaines-Saint-Gault. A petition with more than 32,00 signatures calling on the French government to stop the destruction of historic churches is circulating online. It explains that thousands of abandoned churches are on the verge of demolition but that thanks to President Emmanuel Macron’s 2023 “Church Plan” they can yet be saved. It notes, however, that some municipalities have doubled down on destroying them with no repercussions.
Salenave’s arrest has caught the attention of social media influencers. The Vice President of the Paris chapter of the Association of St. Geneviève, a Traditionalist counter-revolutionary group, called on Catholics to pray for Salenave.
During the interview with French outlet Tocsin, Salenave explained that he spent the night at the police station and that delays in the hearing seemed purposefully designed to “intimate” him but that he said it was a “trial” for him that he used to glorify God. He said that he is filing a complaint over the matter with the authorities.
Salenave is a former priest of the Society of St. Pius X. He is currently a member of the “Resistance,” which is associated with the late English Bishop Richard Williamson, also formerly of the SSPX. The Resistance has a strong presence in France, with the Dominicans of Avrille and the Society of the Apostles of Jesus and Mary (SAJM) its main representatives. It is believed that Salenave is associated with the SAJM.
Salenave appeared on the Tocsin podcast on a separate occasion to explain that he said Masses in barns during COVID, which he described as being similar to the days of the French Revolution.
Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, former Apostolic Nuncio to the United States, drew attention to Salenave’s remarks in a recent interview with Catholic journalist Stephen Kokx.
“What is stopping priests from helping the faithful in this fight against globalism, as some have already begun to do?” he said, referencing Salenave’s efforts. “Catholics must reclaim their destiny, freeing themselves from the invasive and deadly dictatorship of the elite and the overwhelming power of a usurped authority.”
The SSPX recently announced that it would proceed with the consecution of future bishops on July 1 with or without Vatican approval. During an impassioned sermon on Sexagesima Sunday this past weekend, SSPX Bishop Bernard Fellay argued that a “state of necessity” clearly exists for the consecrations because the “missionary spirit” of the Church has been “killed” by the current Roman authorities.
Viganò told Kokx that the wishes for SSPX Superior General Fr. Davide Pagliarani, who will meet with Cardinal Victor Manuel “Tucho” Fernandez on Thursday to make doctrine and Vatican II the primary focus of their conversation. Fernandes is the Prefect of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.
“I hope that the reason the Superior General is insisting on having a dialogue with Rome is not primarily to achieve canonical regularization but rather to ‘corner them’ – so to speak – so that, on the one hand, the willingness of the members of the SSPX to recognize themselves as children of the Catholic Church and subjects of the Roman Pontiff is evident; and on the other hand, to ‘put on record’ the unwillingness of the current Hierarchy to reconsider Vatican II and its very serious deviations, showing it for what it is, namely subversive and heretical,” he remarked.
