2023-09-01 20:35:41
“Discreto, discreeto”, had wished Pope Francis, indicating to the diocese of Marseille his coming for the Mediterranean Meetings, organized from September 17 to 24. A wish that did not resist the announcement of the holding of a mass at the Vélodrome stadium on Saturday September 23, at 3 p.m. “A huge event within the event”, underlined Amaury Guillem, responsible for the organization of the Mediterranean Meetings which unveiled its program this Friday. Because if the Pope’s mass is literally extraordinary, the Mediterranean Meetings offer in Marseille not far from a hundred very diverse events: football tournaments, evenings, balls, dinners, exhibitions, conferences, concerts, animated, supervised and organized by 2,300 volunteers.
The Pope on a bend in the Velodrome
A program set up in a little less than six months and which brings together around sixty partners, institutions (city, region, department) and committed associations (Sos Méditerranée, Apprentis d’Auteuil, Cimade, etc.). A tour de force for a team “which started from a blank slate in March and had no experience in organizing festivals”, specified Amaury Guillem, adding: all these partners will animate, among other things, the associative village, installed for the week on the forecourt of the cathedral of the Major.
Regarding Pope Francis’ mass at the Vélodrome, “there are still a few places available”. Free, tickets can be purchased via the parish of your place of residence or directly on the Mediterranean Meetings website. In all it should be nearly 57,000 people who will attend this office in a stadium where two days earlier the French rugby team will have faced Namibia in the group stage of the World Cup. The diocese of Marseilles explained that the tribune of the Pope will be located in one of the two bends of the stadium where the bishops will also be held. The stands Ganay, Jean-Bouin, and the second corner are reserved for the faithful who will also find space on the lawn.
Emphasis on the plight of migrants
To meet accommodation needs, places are available on a Norwegian Cruise Line liner, mobilized in Marseille for the Rugby World Cup. For the time being, the diocese has not communicated on the number of people expected for this event, although Nicolas Guyot, vice-president of the Union of trades and industries of the hotel industry of Bouches-du-Rhône, has put forward on BFM Marseille an estimate of 300,000 visitors.
This third edition of the Mediterranean Meetings, the first outside Italy, after those in Florence and Bari, will place particular emphasis on the tragic fate of migrants and refugees for its closing. The Catholic Church has had a tradition since 1914 of celebrating every last weekend of September its World Day of Refugees and Migrants. This year, it falls on September 24, the last day of this festival.
Originally thought of as a time for discussions and exchanges between bishops from countries around the Mediterranean, these Mediterranean Meetings take on another dimension in Marseille. What arouse the enthusiasm of the organizers: “We will need a Med24, a Med25…”, wished Amaury Guillem.
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