Bordeaux cathedral holds Mass for parishes closed by wildfires

The wildfires had consumed 42,000 hectares by the beginning of the week and forced over 220,00 residents and tourists to evacuate from the region between Bordeaux and the coast, about 60 km to the west.

St André Cathedral in Bordeaux held Mass on Sunday for parishes that closed down because of the wildfires approaching the outskirts of the city. 

The Mass was in “a very special communion with these parish communities in great distress”, said Fr Samuel Volta of the closed parish of Cap Ferret Sud Médoc on the Atlantic coast.

“For many, we are here because we are exiled from our parishes,” he said. “May the pleasant scent of incense to be placed everywhere in place of the acrid smell of smoke.”

Fr Clément Barré of St Joseph des Jalles, a northwest suburb close to Bordeaux, was evacuated on Saturday night. About 55,000 people have had to leave the Bordeaux metropolitan area because of the fires. 

“We are all faced with the same challenge: how to cope with these events that are too great, too serious, too painful, too frightening?” Fr Barré said in his sermon.

Not by asking the Lord for a great miracle to change the weather but to change our hearts, he said: “A more humble and bold prayer that commits the one who dares to utter it.”

His parish website carried a notice: “Due to the intense heat, the celebration of weekday Masses is suspended until further notice.”

The wildfires had consumed 42,000 hectares by the beginning of the week and forced over 220,00 residents and tourists to evacuate from the region between Bordeaux and the coast, about 60 km to the west.

Smaller fires are burning in the departments of Les Landes, south of Bordeaux, and Var, Hautes Alpes and Haute Corse in southeastern France.

In the Corsican capital Ajaccio, Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo thanked firefighters working along the steep hillsides in the centre of the island.

“We have opened the Saint François du Niolu convent in Calacuccia to accommodate personnel involved in fighting the fires,” he said in a statement. “I entrust in prayer the inhabitants of Niolu and Cortenais, the personnel involved and all those affected by these fires.”

Archbishop Jean-Paul James of Bordeaux said in a statement: “We are all united with those who are suffering from this fire and are fighting to extinguish it. We pray and we stand in solidarity.”

At the end of the Angelus from Castel Gandolfo on Sunday, Pope Leo prayed for all those suffering from the fires.

“Faced with the devastating fires which, in recent days, have ravaged several towns in France and Spain, I express my closeness and invite everyone to pray for those affected and for the work of the rescue workers,” he said.

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