Church Volunteer Admits to Arson Attack on French Cathedral

Church Volunteer Admits to Arson Attack on French Cathedral
A fire fighters brigade works to extinguish the blaze at the Gothic St. Peter and St. Paul Cathedral, in Nantes, western France, on July 18, 2020. Laetitia Notarianni/AP Photo
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PARIS—French authorities detained and charged a repentant church volunteer Sunday after he told investigators that he was responsible for an arson attack that badly damaged a 15th-century Gothic cathedral.

The man had previously been questioned and then released after the July 18 blaze that destroyed the organ, shattered stained glass windows, and blackened the insides of the Cathedral of St. Peter and St. Paul of the western French city of Nantes.