French bishops appeal for calm as riots and looting sweep France

French bishops have appealed for an end to violence after a weekend of rioting in which public buildings were burned, shops were looted nationwide, and a Lyon interreligious peace march was postponed.

“I call on everyone not to be swept up in the spiral of this violence: Our city and our country deserve better than this,” Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, archbishop of Marseille and president of the French bishops' conference, said in an Oct. 18 communiqué .

In Marseille, he wrote, “shops were looted, churches broken into, the city hall invaded and damaged, a police station ransacked, and members of the police attacked.” The archdiocese has not said which churches were entered.

Archbishop Olivier de Germay of Lyon said in a statement on X that his city “was the scene of clashes, hatred, destruction, and looting that are unacceptable.”

“I am well aware that this violence is the sign of a society that is unwell, but I want to state forcefully once again that it is a dead end,” he wrote.

Organizers postponed a March for Peace that Lyonʼs Christian, Muslim, and Jewish leaders had planned for Sunday to mark the 40th anniversary of St. John Paul IIʼs 1986 interreligious day of…