Diversity Macht Frei
November 18, 2017
“They came in, one of the sisters welcomed them and they talked with her”. On Monday, Monsignor Gusching, Bishop of Verdun came again to see the religious community of Verdun, which has ten nuns within it. The Carmelites are still under the shock of what happened to them on Friday 10 November, around 5 pm.
When the Vespers was due to be held, two individuals of around 30 years old, bearded and dressed normally, entered the Carmelite convent of Verdun.
After a discussion with the sister present at the reception area, she told them that the service was about to begin. “They asked if they could go into the chapel,” continued the Bishop. “She said yes.”
Once they were in the chapel, “they prayed in Arabic during the Vespers,” says Monsignor Gusching. “They presented themselves as if they were announcers and told them: if you do not convert, you will go to hell.”
In a statement, Guillaume Dupont, prosecutor of the Republic of Verdun, explained that at the end of the service one of the men wrote the words “Allah Akbar” on the church’s visitor book.
Of course, this recalls the circumstances of the murder of a priest that took place in the church of Saint-Étienne-du-Rouvray on 26 juillet 2016. But no physical violence was used against the nuns present. And no link with Islamist terrorism has been demonstrated.
The two men finally left as they had come “thanking the nun for her welcome,” the bishop emphasises.