SAINT-PIERRE-DE-COLOMBIER : THE BASILICA OF DISCORD | M6 | 66 minutes

Local residents and environmental activists break through fences at a construction site and attempt to storm the excavators. Nuns tackle intruders to the ground. These scenes of violence took place this autumn in Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier, a small village in the Ardèche region of France that is split in two.

For years, a conflict has been raging between residents and the brothers and sisters of the Famille Missionnaire de Notre-Dame-des-Neiges, a 3500-strong Catholic religious community established in the village in 1947.

The main point of contention is the planned construction of a 17 million euro spiritual center in the middle of the national park. For the people of Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier, this was the last straw.

Members of the parish are said to be interfering “a little too much” in local affairs, buying up land, factories and houses, and trying to influence the mayor and his elected representatives. The mission to combat cults has classified this as a cause for concern. Suspicions of sectarian aberrations therefore hang over the congregation.

So what’s really going on at Saint-Pierre-de-Colombier? What are the intentions behind this huge basilica project? Is the religious congregation trying to take over the whole village? Investigation into the heart of this fractured village.