As the Seine river flow from Paris to the sea, its comes the modest port town of Les Andelys. and here on the six days of touring our cruise ship docked for the day. Breaking away from the days scheduled actitities, Alice and I set out in search a the towns parish church .
Our path led to us to Church of Notre Dame , a towering 13th century Gothic structure that has seen better days. The sooted and stained structure, once the pride of Normandy, suffers from haphazard maintenance and long periods of neglect. A row of half broken statues greeted us when we entered and much of the artwork lining the nave was covered with a patina of dust.
In France, religion is never done in half-measures. Seven of the nation’s national holiday’s bear religious titles. Medieval French churches have some of the highest towers in Europe, and the architecture of new houses of worship is wildly creative. Across the nation, churches are thronged with worshipers on Christmas and Easter. But the nation is also fiercely secular, and Sunday Mass attendance is threadbare. Many French describe themselves as atheists but share an affinity with the church for family or cultural reasons.
In Les Andelys things have not always been that way. In the late Middle Ages, the large church had been a gathering point for crowds of pilgrims on the feast of St. Clotilde, a venerated French queen who built two monasteries here in early 500 AD. For centuries, the church hosted a convent school for daughters of noble families. All of this ended in the violence of the 1879 French Revolution. Discolored marks on the walls of the church gave evidence of the desecration of churches and the wholesale removal of church altars, statues, paintings, and furniture. In the course of the upheaval, hundreds of clergy and religious were executed. amd some thirty thousand priests were driven from France.
Like the changing river, anti-religious sentiment shifted. In the mid 1800’s France experienced a resurgent sense of Catholicity. Vocations to the priesthood and religious life were numerous. Catholic schools, hospitals and social services were expanded. In Les Andelys, a hospital for pilgrims was busy and two large schools thrived. As many as twenty agricultural villages in the vicinity of Les Andelys had their own local church or chapel and as many as eight priests served the Notre Dame church.
But again things changed: By 1905 the government hade closed almost all Catholic schools in the country, and deprive religious orders of property rights. Today almost all French churches are owned by the state or local government. Secularism is rampant, and many view religionsas a private, personal matter. The mention of God or Church in civic discourse is deemed unpatriotic. A prominent public figure recently explained that he only went to church for “baptisms, weddings, and funerals.”
The churches in Normandy has experienced similar difficulties. In Les Andelys is a town of 8000 inhabitants, but there were only a dozen first communions celebrated this past year. It t is not uncommon for children on museum outings to ask, “who is that man hanging on that cross?” In the church of Les Andelys, once the centerpoint of a vibrant faith community, there are only two Masses a week. Yet these waters run deep, and if you looks carefully, the currents of a living, worshipping Christian community can be found.
Near the church entry, a modest stone sign imbedded in a driveway wall reads “presbytere et centre paroissial” (rectory-parish center) directing the visitor to a modest complex containing an office, several meeting rooms (one of which, with a simple table-like altar, doubles as a chapel for daily Masses), and living accommodations for the clergy. Attached to the center are several young priests and two lay catechists and together they serve a consortium of ten chapels in the surrounding villages or senior centers. collectively identified as “the Parish of St. Clotilde with a busy schedule of Masses, conferences, and classes. Evangelization is prayer- and service oriented, focused on one-to -one encounters, small group liturgies, and fellowhip gatherings.
And the river continue to change. In the last several years, there have been reports of unexpected developments in France’s larger cities: accounts of packed Sunday Masses and grass-roots youth movements inspired by Pope Francis. In the Archdiocese of Paris, 2,652 adults were baptized on Easter 2025. Yet, provincial towns such as Les Andelys the provinces, once thought to be the heartland of French Catholicity, are slower to recover. But the faith goes on: the Gospel is heard, themystery of the bread and wine are celebrated, the poor and elderly are served. The little Catholic community of Les Andelys struggles to surmount the difficulties its faces and as it does tt deserves to be admired, learned from, and above all, prayed for.
