Desecration of places of worship: an example in Meaux 
A photo taken this weekend in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), in the Rue du Grand Cerf. The portal is one of the ancient church of Saint-Christophe, destroyed after the revolution and that the portal remains only a historical monument. Until a few years ago, the premises were occupied by an antique dealer. In recent months, a lingerie shop ... The contrast is striking. He completed, some way, the desecration of the site. The dealer referred again to the past, something traditional. Old objects at the foot of a monument not shocked in the end that few people, although activity was completely secular. But it would suffice to show this picture to some Catholics to see the reactions of hostility displayed: lingerie in a church (which is no longer one), but where will we? The place is more sacred for a long time yet. He even hosted a cabaret in the nineteenth century. But the vision of a portal immediately classified as religious architecture provokes the believer (but is it only in the believer?) the impression of being in the presence of a sacred place. So the first reaction is rejection: a lingerie shop, with posters of nude women, refers in the Christian imagination, sin. And what could be more incompatible than sin and a church? The backlash is also the result of a culturally Christian reading of the landscape: the Gothic architecture is associated with the sacred. If there are Gothic elements, so there church where church there sacred requires some decency. However, a Chinese who was passing by there would certainly not the same thing ... The label "sacred" is cultural and ahistorical somewhere here as two hundred years after its destruction, the portal is still all the old church in the eyes of the passer. The hostile reaction to this picture could also show that the desecration, ultimately, can not be decreed but occurs after a fairly long and complex.
A photo taken this weekend in Meaux (Seine-et-Marne), in the Rue du Grand Cerf. The portal is one of the ancient church of Saint-Christophe, destroyed after the revolution and that the portal remains only a historical monument. Until a few years ago, the premises were occupied by an antique dealer. In recent months, a lingerie shop ... The contrast is striking. He completed, some way, the desecration of the site. The dealer referred again to the past, something traditional. Old objects at the foot of a monument not shocked in the end that few people, although activity was completely secular. But it would suffice to show this picture to some Catholics to see the reactions of hostility displayed: lingerie in a church (which is no longer one), but where will we? The place is more sacred for a long time yet. He even hosted a cabaret in the nineteenth century. But the vision of a portal immediately classified as religious architecture provokes the believer (but is it only in the believer?) the impression of being in the presence of a sacred place. So the first reaction is rejection: a lingerie shop, with posters of nude women, refers in the Christian imagination, sin. And what could be more incompatible than sin and a church? The backlash is also the result of a culturally Christian reading of the landscape: the Gothic architecture is associated with the sacred. If there are Gothic elements, so there church where church there sacred requires some decency. However, a Chinese who was passing by there would certainly not the same thing ... The label "sacred" is cultural and ahistorical somewhere here as two hundred years after its destruction, the portal is still all the old church in the eyes of the passer. The hostile reaction to this picture could also show that the desecration, ultimately, can not be decreed but occurs after a fairly long and complex. 
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