The gendarmerie is investigating the kidnapping and sequestration, lasting two days, in June of the father superior of a Benedictine monastery in Puy-de-Dôme and the possibility of “tensions” regarding the management of the abbey is favored, indicated Tuesday July 21 the prosecutor of Clermont-Ferrand. The Benedictines of Bellaigue form a community historically linked to the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius In recent years, religious people have further hardened their position, now close to sedevacantism.
On the night of June 23 to 24, Father Placide, who heads the monks of Notre-Dame de Bellaigue Abbey, in Virlet, near Riom, had disappeared, revealed La Montagne. According to the daily, he had written an email announcing his intention to resign, a suspicious message in the eyes of some of the monks who had alerted the gendarmerie.
Which had triggered significant research before the monk managed to call the monks and was found, two days after his disappearance, in an isolated station near Limoges, more than 150 km from the abbey. Father Placide showed “the traces of numerous blows,” writes La Montagne. “A preliminary gendarmerie investigation is underway for kidnapping/sequestration,” confirmed Clermont-Ferrand prosecutor Eric Serfass.
“Tensions regarding the management issues of the abbey”
The magistrate says he is waiting “to have solid elements of the investigations” but adds that “this affair seems to be linked to tensions with regard to the management issues of the abbey”. Without further details. According to La Montagne, the abbot faced “dissidence” challenging his authority from monks who left the monastery before returning on the evening of his disappearance.
