They also broke the stained glass window above the high altar.
“They didn’t take any religious objects, and they didn’t touch the tabernacle,” said Father Gregory Lutz-Wiest of the Institute of the Good Shepherd, which celebrates the sacred liturgy in the extraordinary form. “It’s a bit confusing.”
The parish is also the motherhouse of the Institute, established with Vatican approval in 2006.
Feminist marchers had sprayed graffiti on the church the previous week. “We also have drug addicts who come, urinate, and behave badly in the church,” said Father Lutz-Wiest. “There is no security in front of our churches [though] they are very often attacked, and Christians are the most persecuted believers in France.”