Closure of Church of Our Lady of the Council. Sign of the times....
Closure of Church of Our Lady of the Council. Sign of the times....
Mgr Michel Pansard, Bishop of the Diocese of Evry-Corbeil, has requested that Church of Our Lady of the Council in Chilly-Mazarin be closed to the public. The diocese fears "a risk of collapse".
In a letter dated 3 October, Mgr Michel Pansard explained:
"Following the report by the ANCA company in 2023, which highlighted structural problems, the diocese commissioned an additional audit by a specialist consultancy firm, which concluded that there was a risk of collapse, accentuated in certain weather conditions (rain, snow, wind). It is my responsibility not to compromise on people's safety.
The Vicar General of the Diocese explains:
"It's a question of prestressing disorders between the roof, the framework and the walls. It's linked to the age of the building, even though we carried out quite a lot of maintenance in 2016. Our Lady of the Council was built in the late 1960s and inaugurated in the early 1970s.
Quite a …