Update 4th May. By a legal twist Pregizer and the right wing Catholic order have circumvented the pre-emptive power of the State. Pregizer has not actually sold Lagrasse abbey, rather he has sold shares in the SCI company which owns Lagrasse Abbey. This legal fiction means that ownership of the Abbey has not changed hands, only control of the SCI- no change of ownership no state intervention. Send an protest e-mail to the mayor
The future of Lagrasse Abbey hangs in the balance. A close religious order has signed a compromis du vente with the present owner, Hans Rainer Pregizer, the mayor of Lagrasse, Jean-Paul Olive, with the support of the Canton of Lagrasse's Regional Councilor and President of the Aude Department, Marcel Rainaud, oppose the sale and are desperately lobbying to use the State's pre-emptive powers to block the sale and buy the abbey for the Lagrasse Commune and Aude Department.
"The Commune of Lagrasse is not going to loose the Abbey of Sainte-Marie again, the last private investor announced he was going to transform the abbey into a "site exceptionel", it was a compelling idea. Since then we have been waiting" said Jean-Paul Olive, the Lagrasse Mayor.
The Monks of the Mère de Dieu, an off-shoot from the Opus Marie community founded by Wladimir-Marie de Saint-Jean in 1969, are a semi-reclusive and contemplative traditional Catholic order who closely follow the teachings of St. Augustin. They report and are held accountable directly to Rome, not the French Catholic hierarchy. At present they are based in the Abbey du Saint-Coeur Notre Dame at Gap in the Hautes-Alpes. They are looking to consolidate their order of around 30 monks into one Abbey. Lagrasse is not the first Abbey they have tried to buy, in 2001 they bid for the Abbey Saint-Maur de Glandeuil between Saumur and Angers only to see it whisked out from under their noses by the Conseil General of Angers who would not accept their payment terms of paying over four to five years. In the same year they say their bid for Abbey d'Auberive, in the Haute-Marne vetoed by the Bishop of the Haut-Marne.
This time they have the firm support Monseigneur Despierre, Bishop of Carcassonne, but once again they are faced with a hostile local and Departmental State.
"We are entering a conflictual phase, stated Marcel Rainaud, today I am fully backing the Mayor of Lagrasse who is preparing "une déclaration d'utilité publique" with a view to expropriating the Abbey. We have given our financial support to Lagrasse."
"The community of the Mére de Dieu are not welcome in Lagrasse" the President of the Aude stated, Rainaud also claimed that a number of priests opposed the decision of their Bishop and had approached him directly to stop the community coming to the Aude.

Editorial
The Abbey of Lagrasse cannot continue in its present state. 20% is owned by the public and the other 80% privately. For all the Mayor of Lagrasse's breast beating the 20% controlled by the public has seen no major investment by the Commune, in fact it is now actually dangerous,as are some of the public parts of the privately owned property. What is quite obvious is that there is no clear vision on the side of the politicians on what to do with the Abbey. The Mayor of Lagrasse talks about a "centre patrimonial, culturel et architectural" which could mean anything to anyone but probably means a big pit into which various committees will sink large amount of public funds for little return. But even that is better than a closed religious community taking over this crucial resource who have neither the resources or the will to restore the Abbey for the public.