I wonder if he was aware that killing oneself, or anybody else for that matter, in a sacred precinct is frowned upon by most religions. The real victims here are the sanctity of Notre Dame and the mental health of the fifteen hundred people whom Venner traumatized in an even more selfish gesture, and one done for even stupider reasons, than suicide usually is anyway. I hope God will deliver this bastard from the dust of the grave, but I'm far from willing to count on it.
EDIT: From
a New Yorker article:
No. Venner doesn't deserve to be mentioned in the same sentence as Mishima. Venner didn't deserve to die a death that would be compared to Mishima's. Venner's beliefs don't deserve to be compared to Mishima's, and I'm not even fond of Mishima or (obviously) his actions or beliefs.
EDIT, again:
Apparently the
New Yorker article contains some misleading or false statements about Venner and he was actually some sort of rightist neopagan, which makes this still completely disgusting and unacceptable decision make a lot more sense.
