Saint Joseph’s Church in Paris has held all its five weekend Masses, four baptisms, a short Advent retreat and a session making meals for the homeless these past few weekends while violent protests and police tear gas barrages raged just outside its front door.

Standing only about 300 yards from the Arc de Triomphe, the church for English-speaking Catholics has stayed open while the “Yellow Vest” protests shut down much of central Paris. A neighbouring supermarket on Avenue Hoche was looted and several vehicles have been burned.

On 1 December, protesters flocked into the church’s garden, sometimes relieving themselves there, and sat for a rest on the steps leading down to the parvis and the doors to the subterranean church.  

As the tension rose, the parish priest opened the building and invited protesters to use its toilets.

“We don’t run scared in this place,” said Fr Aidan Troy, the Irish Passionist who has led the parish for the past decade.  “I don’t care whether they were protesters or police. You have a humanity that you must always keep.”

Fr Troy is no stranger to street protests. His previous assignment was at Holy Cross parish in Belfast, where he escorted Catholic girls through Protestant protesters on their way to school.

Nor has Saint Joseph’s been spared from earlier Paris turmoil. A year after the Passionists opened it in 1869, the Franco-Prussian War broke out, followed by the Paris Commune insurrection.

Artillery fire regularly fell in the area, and shrapnel once smashed through one window and out another during Mass. The priest calmed the congregation and the service continued.

Attendance at Saint Joseph’s, which has about 2,000 parishioners, has dropped because nearby metro stations and streets are closed during protests, but the church can handle that too. Several parishioners, including one visiting family in Dublin, have followed Mass and the retreat via the church’s new YouTube channel.

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