What to do with (European) crumpling churches

Religion in the News
By ANGELA DOLAND

GESTE, France (AP) ?- Mayor Jean-Pierre Leger was married and baptized his children at Saint-Pierre-aux-Liens church in this village in western France. Not without sadness, he is now planning to bulldoze the 19th century building.

The dilemma of what to do with churches that have fallen out of favor ?- and into disrepair ?- is facing towns and villages across France and other European countries. Some communities have dynamited churches deemed too expensive to maintain. Others have taken a less radical approach, selling them as housing.

In traditionally Roman Catholic France, fewer than 5 percent of the nation's 62 million people attend Mass every week, down from 27 percent a half-century ago, according to a survey of more than 29,000 people published by the Ifop polling agency in 2006.

Leger says the decision to bulldoze most of Geste's church was tough but logical. For $2.13 million ?- less than half the cost of a restoration ?- the 2,400 villagers will get a new church built around the bell tower of the existing structure, which will be preserved along with the crypt.

The crumbling current church "has 1,000 seats. It's five times too big for the congregation that usually comes," said the mayor. "People prefer a more modern church, that's more cheerful and warm, instead of a huge one where they get lost in all the space."

Jewels of religious architecture, like Notre Dame de Paris, have funding from the national government. Not so, however, for tens of thousands of lesser churches, especially rural chapels, many of which host Mass for their dwindling parishioners only once every few weeks. The ages of such churches vary, though many are old by American standards.

Burdened by debt and struggling to revive the economy, the French government can't help much. Culture Minister Christine Albanel has floated some unusual fundraising ideas for preserving significant monuments, including churches; one idea is a game from the national lottery service, another a tax of more than $3 for guests at luxury hotels.

The government and the Catholic Church are to discuss what to do at a June conference. Under a quirk of French law that governs the separation of church and state, most churches are owned by the towns where they are located. That means they have to pay for all repairs if structures are not classed as historic monuments and thus eligible for state funds.

The church has made religious architecture a priority, while acknowledging it isn't always feasible to keep churches standing.

"We understand the reaction in some towns ?- if you have to choose between building a new elementary school or replacing the roof for the church, that can be a problem," said the Rev. Norbert Hennique, director of sacred art for France's Catholic authorities.

France has so many parish churches that neither Catholic nor government authorities have an accurate count. The Culture Ministry says 60,000 is its best guess.

It's unclear exactly how many are nearing ruin. A Culture Ministry report in January said 41 percent of the most significant monuments ?- churches and other buildings ?- are in poor shape or endangered, compared with 32 percent five years ago. That doesn't take into account ordinary, but still lovely, village churches.

"When you lose a town's church, you somehow lose the entire character of the town," said Alain Guinberteau, an architecture fan compiling an online inventory of France's steeples.

In France, converting churches for other uses remains a taboo, though officials plan to raise the possibility at the June conference. In Britain, churches have been turned into apartments, cafes, warehouses ?- even a circus school. In Rome, at the heart of Catholicism, deconsecrated churches are art galleries and a restaurant.

A few European churches are being converted into mosques, sometimes amid controversy. When Muslim groups in Germany bought two New Apostolic chapels in Berlin last year, several Christian leaders erupted in anger.

In France ?- where there are 1,500 mosques and prayer rooms nationwide and more in the works ?- it's unlikely that distressed chapels will be converted for use by Muslims, officials say. That's in part because most of churches are in rural areas that lack sizable Muslim communities, although Muslims do make up about 10 percent of the nation's population overall.

Britain may provide talking points for France as it decides what to do. As in France, preserving churches will be costly: In 2006, conservation group English Heritage estimated the cost of repairing England's most significant places of worship at $1.85 billion over five years ?- a figure that didn't take into account ordinary churches.

Westminster Abbey and St. Paul's Cathedral in London charge hefty entrance fees, unlike in France. Other British churches host conferences. Still others apply for money from the National Lottery.

The problem is particularly pressing in the Anjou region of western France, where many churches, like Geste's, were built with a soft, fragile stone mined nearby in the 19th century ?- by French standards, not that long ago.

The spectacular tear-down and reconstruction of one church in the region, in Le Fief-Sauvin in 1998, became a model for others. It was dynamited. Only some stained-glass windows were preserved and a new structure incorporated around them. A pamphlet at the door even shows a Hollywood-like photo of the bell tower being blown to pieces.

The destruction inspired Geste to do likewise. Its efforts to secure state funding for a renovation failed. Meanwhile, the church's walls were crumbling, throwing down stones that forced villages to rig up a safety net. The church was eventually shuttered as a safety hazard and a demolition permit secured ?- though there is opposition.

Critics ran in local elections this March with candidates promising to ditch the plan if elected. They lost but have not given up. Jean Woznica, a retiree working on a legal battle against the mayor's plans, believes the church is not in dire shape and can be saved for far less than the $4.4 million the mayor says a full renovation would cost.

"For those who say they'd rather have a modern church without pillars, with a better view, which is more warm and friendly ?- would that be a reason for tearing down Notre Dame de Paris?" he asked.

But even Notre Dame needed saving once. The cathedral was in such poor repair in the 19th century that Paris officials considered tearing it down. Victor Hugo wrote "The Hunchback of Notre Dame" to draw attention to its sorry state.