By The Tablet Staff

PROSPECT HEIGHTS — The French government warned this week of a “very high terrorist threat” to religious gatherings and places of worship on the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary on August 15, one of the holiest days on the Catholic calendar. 

According to the French news outlet BFMTV, Gérald Darmanin, France’s minister of the Interior, told local government officials via social media that “services, gatherings, processions, and pilgrimages” at sites traditionally associated with Marian devotion face particular danger. He stressed that the country is under “a very high level of terrorist threat.

“Extreme vigilance must be maintained, particularly with regard to demonstrations and places of a religious nature,” Darmanin said. He further urged local officials to be in constant contact with religious sites, deploy extra security forces to “more sensitive” locations, and advise Christian leaders on measures to detect suspicious individuals or vehicles in front of places of worship. 

The French government was reportedly likely to deploy its anti-terrorist Opération Sentinelle forces to key pilgrimage sites, such as the Shrine of Our Lady of Lourdes, where more than 30,000 worshipers were expected to gather on the feast of the Assumption.

The Solemnity of the Assumption celebrates the Blessed Virgin Mary being assumed, body and soul, into Heaven. In France, one of the oldest Catholic countries in the world, the feast of the Assumption is a public holiday, usually celebrated with Masses and public processions.

Darmanin said the high alert was partly due to France’s ongoing international exposure as host of the 2024 Olympics and the upcoming Paralympic Games and to “strong tensions on the international level, in particular in the Middle East.”

According to the humanitarian group Human Rights Without Frontiers International, there were nearly 1,000 acts of terror and intimidation against Christians in France in 2023. 

This past Easter, the French government deployed 13,500 police officers and anti-terrorism forces to thousands of Catholic and Protestant places of worship across the country, Radio France Internationale reported.