2023-09-23 12:55:00
Facing the Mediterranean, in front of Emmanuel Macron and an audience of personalities from Marseille, the holy father gave a speech that was both spiritual and committed.
By Jérôme Cordelier, special envoy to Marseille The mayor of Marseille Benoit Payan, Pope Francis, Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte, upon their arrival at the Palais du Pharo. © ANDREAS SOLARO / AFP Published on 09/23/2023 at 12:55 p.m.
A spiritual leader with a very political head! At the start of the second day of his visit to Marseille, from the Palais du Pharo which dominates Marseille, at the conclusion of the Mediterranean meetings, we found the Jesuit Francis, who likes nothing more than taking advantage of his trips to emblematic places to pose strong words engaged in public debate. In Marseille, “gate of hope”, “plural and familiar city”, “capital of the integration of peoples”, surrounded by bishops from the five shores of the Mediterranean, in front of a packed auditorium of public, economic and social figures. civil society, Francis rediscovered the momentum of his committed encyclicals, launching into a beautiful, long and abundant meditation on the sea, the port, the lighthouse, beginning a “Mediterranean theology” anchored in reality, because, a- he said, triggering approving nods from Emmanuel Macron, “laboratory theology doesn’t work”.
For Francis, “the Mare Nostrum concentrates all the challenges of the world”. The climate challenge and biodiversity – the themes of his encyclical Laudato Siof which he will publish an updated version on October 5 –, fraternity – also the subject of his encyclical Brothers all –, solidarity, sharing… “Yes,” said the Pope, “the Mediterranean expresses a vital, open, conciliatory thought, a community thought.” Alas, he sighed, “the Mediterranean, the cradle of civilization has become the tomb of dignity”, referring again and again to the tragedies of migrants, and more broadly to the tragedies experienced by the poor “who are faces, not numbers.”
READ ALSO “Migrating should be a free choice”: Francis, the Pope Prophet of LampedusaThis is one of the fundamental axes of his pontificate, and the center of this gathering of bishops from the five shores of the Mediterranean, who surrounded him. “Mare Nostrum must not become Mare Mortuum,” said François, in a shocking statement. “Mare Nostrum cries for justice!” » he exclaimed, evoking a face-to-face confrontation between the “shores of opulence and those where precariousness reigns”. In passing, he quoted the very Francophile Pope Paul VI, who said in 1967: “The peoples of hunger challenge the peoples of opulence. » The Argentinian, who was criticized for shunning France and for having said that he was coming to Marseille and not visiting our country, also took care to highlight the contribution of the great French Christians such as Charles de Foucauld – familiar with Marseille –, Pascal – whose beatification he has just launched – but also, less frequently in his mouth, the work of Georges Bernanos.
Pope Francis against “bellicose nationalisms”
This meditation served by strong images and shocking formulas, evangelical but also poetic at certain moments, therefore also had, let us emphasize, as always with this Jesuit pope, an eminently political nature. Francis became angry to denounce delinquency, prostitution, mafia networks which make the most fragile “slaves”, pointing to “the cries of pain which rise from Africa and the Middle East”. He sharply attacked “belligerent nationalisms which want to destroy the community of nations”, but also sent a firm warning to young people to “be careful of all the fundamentalisms that are preached and which cause fear”.
In front of Emmanuel Macron and his wife, as well as the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, the mayors of Marseille present – Benoît Payan – and former – Jean-Claude Gaudin – the pope called on political leaders, and more broadly the European Union , but also everyone, has a duty of solidarity, social justice, universal charity and sharing. By asking that “those who take refuge among us are not considered as a burden”, preaching integration rather than “rigid in its paradigms” assimilation. “We need a surge of conscience to say no to inequality, yes to solidarity! » he insisted. He is a pope who wants to spread the word to build “bridges” – another Bergoglian fad – between the five disparate shores of the Mediterranean, the worlds of opulence and precariousness, and all believers. And he charged his bishops, in mercy, to invite the Church not to be “a series of prescriptions but a port of hope and encouragement”.
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