Over the past three years French churches have become the target of vandals and criminals with an average of almost three churches targeted for vandalism per day.
A report from the Central Criminal Intelligence Service of the gendarmerie noted that from 2016 to 2018 there had been thousands of cases of church vandalism, peaking in 2017 with 1,045 cases, Le Figaro reports.
According to the French Interior Ministry, when cemeteries and other sites are taken into consideration, the number of acts of vandalism rose to 1,063 in 2018.
Earlier this year, in one week alone, in a detestable case of anti-Christian vandalism, France saw twelve churches vandalised, including attackers attempting to set fire to the church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris.