Religious heritage: who will save the 20th century churches, lacking funding for their restoration?

A church closed due to cracks, another victim of water infiltration: in Épinay-sur-Seine (Seine-Saint-Denis), as in many municipalities in France, 20th century religious buildings are deteriorating and struggling to finance their renovation. With its bell tower reminiscent of a minaret and its facade with Chinese decoration and its pagoda roof, the Notre-Dame-des-Missions-du-cygne-d'Enghien church is undoubtedly one of the most original in Île-de-France. -France. But the building, built to the glory of the missionary conquest for the 1931 Universal Exhibition, had to close overnight at the beginning of October, cracks raising fears that the porch vaults would collapse. “Experts estimated that it could happen in ten years or within a week,” Jean-Baptiste Dupuis, diocesan treasurer of Seine-Saint-Denis, told AFP.

Also read: When a village transforms its church into an escape game and the chapel into a cabaret

Since then, props have made it possible to reopen the church. A temporary solution before repairs, even if the main building is not a priori threatened: “we already know that it will be hundreds of thousands of euros”, sighs Jean-Pierre Gaspard, general director of Chantiers du cardinal, association which helps the construction and maintenance of religious buildings in Île-de-France.

A little further away is the Saint-Patrice church, facing the towers of the town of Orgemont, which screams misery, the doors wide open to allow the humidity to escape. “The water infiltration is such that the meter broke two weeks ago, with a fire breaking out. The expert told us, you were lucky. But we haven’t dared to turn the heating back on since,” says Father Désiré Zanté, parish priest. A tarpaulin was placed on this square building, with typical concrete from the 1960s. Here too, the bill promises to be staggering, around 400,000 euros.

However, these buildings were built after the 1905 law separating Churches and State: they belong to the diocese of Seine-Saint-Denis which has 72 in total. A challenge in what remains one of the poorest departments in France: “In the quest, here, there are still yellow coins in the basket…”, recalls Father Zanté. These churches will also not be able to benefit from the subscription for religious heritage launched by Emmanuel Macron, intended for municipalities with less than 10,000 inhabitants. “The whole of France is behind the small village churches, and that is very good, but we must not forget these”, built in the 20th century to accompany urbanization, because “they are full and necessary”, underlines Jean-Pierre Gaspard.

Also read: “French religious heritage, our intimate landscape”

Since their founding in 1931, the Chantiers du Cardinal, which live on donations, have built 330 churches - three others are under construction in Chelles, Montigny-le-Bretonneux and Val d'Europe. “A construction costs 10 million euros minimum,” explains Jean-Pierre Gaspard, who notes that with a budget of 4 to 5 million euros annually, his association “has many more needs than resources” . Especially since, with aging donors, a public not always aware of the subtleties of financing post-1905 churches, “we are in a regular decline in the amount of our collection, while our needs are exploding,” he adds. . The crisis of sexual violence in the Church has undoubtedly not helped generosity either.

But renovations remain necessary, while churches are deteriorating, victims of three factors: land subsidence, damage to roofs (which affects around fifty churches in Île-de-France) and crumbling of aging materials. This was the case at the Notre-Dame du Raincy church, a concrete masterpiece created by the brothers Auguste and Gustave Perret, which saw scales coming off the bell tower until its renovation was completed in March.

A large part of the financing came from public subsidies, the building being classified as a “historic monument” – there are only two post-1905 churches in this case in Seine-Saint-Denis, with Notre-Dame-des-Missions. Jean-Pierre Gaspard also welcomes Emmanuel Macron's stated desire to promote the classification of 19th and 20th century buildings. “There is an awareness at the top of the state that the religious heritage of the 20th century is only helped by public generosity,” he believes.