Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood
Thirty-nine years ago today, the Unification church center in Paris was bombed by a Communist group after several negative articles in the French liberal media. Several Unificationists were seriously injured, and other centers were also targeted all over France at this time. Klaus Schick, who lived in Lyon at the time, recounts the events on and after January 22, 1976.
On January 22, 1976, the Villa Aublet, a Unification church center in Paris, was bombed, leaving a young woman from Norway seriously injured. Persecution and bomb threats toward Unificationists in France began in 1975 and were fueled by the French media. During an intense time when France had signed the Schengen treaty that blocked True Parents from entering Europe for over three decades, the French media portrayed True Father satirically, as a monster and Nazi. This finally led to the bombing of the church center by a communist group. Other events followed, such as kidnappings and an increasing amount of bomb threats all across France, and the government did little to protect the persecuted Unificationists.
True Father gave Henri Blanchard, the national leader for the Unification church in France, instruction to organize a manifestation to protest the violence against the church. With the headline: “Accepterons–Nous la Violence et le Mensonge?” (“Are We Going to Accept Violence and Lies?”), Unificationists in France stood up for justice. The Paris City Hall was reluctant to give them a permit to protest, but in the end had no choice. The message of the protest was that the French people should not tolerate violence, and—as France prides itself in the words “freedom, equality and brotherhood”—these key values apply to Unificationists just like anyone else.
For more images of the history of Unificationists in France during this time, visit History Revealed.
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editorial
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This was sent in by a reader and we thought our readers would appreciate reading it:
from R.L.
I remember this time in France very well. I was stationed in the center of Lyon, when the bombing occurred. After we heard the news, brothers and sisters from the Lyon center did a prayer condition for 3 hours and we all remained standing for this entire time. Then we all went to Paris for this demonstration. The atmosphere in France was very hostile at this time. We felt it every day. One day I was fundraising with a Dutch brother, when the people in town found out we are “Moonies”. A bunch of aggressive young people created a circle around us and to this day I don’t know, how we escaped this situation. It must have been the mighty hand of God.
We received many phone calls with bomb threats and I still remember quite a few times, being in my sleeping bag, just falling asleep I heard stones thrown against our window shutters. Brothers got beaten up frequently. One day one brother and I were fundraising (selling the ‘Nouvel Espoir’) when one man in rage took our newspapers and spread them all over the stair case. Facing such anger was quite a fearful experience. Yet God was with us and protected us in these countless dangerous situations.
A few months later I came back to France, and I could feel, how the spirit was much more relaxed and peaceful. The period of this intense persecution seemed to have passed.
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roberto turconi
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I was in the center in Strasbourg when it happened and after a couple of days I was send to Paris to watch outside the headquarter during the night with another couples of brothers ( I guess because I am a Big guy ) and every night I was scared to death ! I was less then a year in the church and I never saw so much persecution like we had in France, people used to spit at us in the street and try to beat us up and was crazy to witness in the streets !
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editorial
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Dear Mr. Schick,
Thank you for posting your comment! We appreciate it very much and will fix the date.
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Klaus Schick
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Actually – it happened 39 Years ago when I was “stationed” in Paris as a Witnessing-Team-Captn at the Villa Aublet. As such I was still up late at night writing letters sitting right at the window where the bomb was planted. Around 2:15am I remembered that I still had to finish my 21-day cold-shower condition and that it was already the 22nd of January. So I did my final shower and just as I got into my sleepingbag there was a loud Booom, everything vibrated and the lights went out. Next we heard a sister scream downstairs. As we got there she was already standing outside on the street bleeding. We covered her with my blanket and soon the Police and Ambulance arrived. We were lucky that day as our Center leader also just shortly before the blast had left that room. But Sister Comedahl was badly injured with many puncture wounds on the right backside of her body caused by flying debris, her right arm remained paralyzed. A German Brother a few days later also died in an Accident returning from Lion after dropping off WS-Guests there. Bob Exler was part of the WS-staff at the WS-center in Lion. Next day as some of us testified at the police station. They told us that bombings in Paris were a daily occurence, as many extremist groups had their offices in the City. What was a routine for them became an extraordinary experience for us as we found ourselves so suddenly on the frontline in the crossfire of God’s Providence.
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