“Nothing justifies Emmanuel Macron attending a mass at the Vélodrome”

2023-09-20 17:00:13

The presence of Emmanuel Macron at the mass that the sovereign pontiff will celebrate on Saturday September 23 at the Stade-Vélodrome in Marseille is unwelcome. That he welcomes Francis, outside of places of worship, with all the honors due to him as head of state – if the Pope himself wishes it, which does not seem to be the case – it is nothing there which cannot be approved. But it is about something completely different: the Republic, embodied by its president, being at the heart of the ritual expression of a religion which is practiced, among others, on our soil. Does he think he appeals to traditionalist thinking? The price is too heavy, in view of the entire nation.

After the armistice of 1918, Cardinal Amette, Archbishop of Paris, organized a You gods at Notre-Dame and he invited state representatives there. Clemenceau, the “Father of Victory”, was head of government. He radically opposed this perspective. He only consented to Madame Poincaré, wife of the President of the Republic, attending the service in a personal capacity. Later, Cardinal Mercier, Archbishop of Malines (Belgium), encouraged him, as president of the Peace Conference, to “invite a representative of the main nations of the Entente to preside over an act of religion”. Church ceremonies organized in the presence of the government of the Republic? Oh no ! Le Tigre replied that French law absolutely excluded it. The State, while ardently protecting the various religions and their exercise, should not interfere with any.

We must detest, on the part of public authorities, any intolerance – contrary to the spirit of secularism, which, if it abandons itself to it, is immediately perverted. But we must demand rigorous firmness on principles, otherwise the Republic is heading down a slippery slope. We hear today, particularly in the mouth of the Head of State, this or that precedent justifying the departure that is being prepared in the spirit of the law of 1905. None is valid.

Also read the column: Article reserved for our subscribers “By coming to Marseille, Pope Francis continues this Catholic tendency to create mobilizing utopias”

When John Paul II, in 1996, came to France to celebrate the so-called anniversary of the baptism of Clovis, Jacques Chirac rightly welcomed him as sovereign of the Vatican. But since the Pope announced that he would be in “pastoral tour” (which is also, if we understand it correctly, the coloring that Francis wishes to give to his visit), the head of state was right not to join him during a Catholic celebration and to expressly pose before him as the president of France “republican and secular”.

You have 64.42% of this article left to read. The rest is reserved for subscribers.