A parish on Montreal’s South Shore said it will take down a monument paying tribute to the Hells Angels in its cemetery following outrage from residents and church officials.
The large, black tombstone is engraved with a winged skull and the words “Hells Angels MC South,” sitting in full view at the Saint-Basile-le-Grand Parish. The inscription refers to the Montérégie chapter of the motorcycle club.
First reported by La Presse, the story quickly drew a strong response from the Diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil.
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In a news release issued Tuesday, the diocese said the monument showed “failures of the diocesan regulations governing the rights and obligations” of the plot and that the engravings “undermine the specific character of a Catholic cemetery and contravene cemetery regulations.”
Although no names currently appear on the stone, though it sits directly next to the headstone of the local gang’s late co-founder Gaston Brisebois.
the diocese noted that the rules allow church authorities to “remove any object that does not comply with Roman Catholic rites from its cemetery.”
The Hells Angels’ presence in Saint-Basile-le-Grand dates back decades, after a chapter of the gang set up a bunker in town.
In the 1990s, gang wars led to roughly 150 murders in six years.
The bunker was seized and torn down in 2006 — in the wake of the bloody biker war over the control of the drug trade in Quebec.
Quebec Public Security Minister Ian Lafreniere said he thought of the families of innocent victims who were caught in the crossfire.
“Imagine, for instance, you get this image in the cemetery. This is quite the confrontation. So I’m not happy to see that,” he said. “I’m happy to see the reaction of citizens, of family members. Even the Diocese of Longueuil made a reaction, stating that they were shocked.”
Officials said it will be removed shortly.
“The Diocese of Saint-Jean-Longueuil sincerely regrets the embarrassment caused by these events and assures the public that it will make parishes with cemeteries more aware of the need to be more vigilant in applying diocesan standards and regulations,” the statement read.
With files from CTV News’s Geneviève Beauchemin and Stephane Giroux and Noovo Info
