The mayor of Cannes, a rising figure among the Republicans, speaks at length, in Le Point, about his relationship with the Christian God. He defends a liberal exegesis of the parables of the Gospel.
Talk about God when you are a politician? “I try to remain modest in my expression of these questions”confides David Lisnard in the preamble… of a very long interview published this Sunday in The Point and in which the mayor (LR) of Cannes and president of the Association of Mayors of France returns in detail to his spiritual life. Which seems to be quite tortuous: “My relationship with religion has had its ups and downs”he adds, while outlining the contours of his return to religion, which also has consequences on his political convictions, because David Lisnard says he is today opposed to a law authorizing euthanasia.
David Lisnard exposes to the journalist Jérôme Cordelier his youthful infidelities to the Christian faith in which he grew up, believing that “someone who is mandated by citizens does not have to dodge and hide who he is”while claiming to advance with “lots of precautions” on this ground.
The mayor of Cannes “received a Catholic religious education” : “My mother goes to mass regularly, without being ‘blessed ass’”he said. Although he was only a student of public and secular school, he nonetheless received all the sacraments of Christian initiation during his childhood: baptism, communion, confirmation… but as an adolescent he was then was not quite a choirboy: “At the time, continues David Lisnard, I was more attracted to punk, rock and girls. I was more interested in women’s breasts than in canonized saints.”
Today, it’s different: the mayor of Cannes goes to mass and prays regularly. And readily cites John Paul II who launched his famous “France, are you faithful to the promises of your baptism?”while insisting on the fact that he is not “not exclusive in transcendence” car “Republican transcendence also exists”. According to David Lisnard, and with all due respect “to the priest eaters”, “the republican universalism which must bring us all together is in line with the words of Jesus”.
For David Lisnard, Jesus was liberal
To the journalist who asks if the teaching of Christ is not left-wing, David Lisnard responds “to provoke” that Jesus was a liberal. And interprets in the light of this exegesis certain parables from the gospels: “The text on the Good Samaritan emphasizes individual voluntarism. The parable of the talents advocates investment and risk. Just like that of the workers of the 11e hour, where we see a landowner paying his workers in a contractual approach. It’s a liberal approach, isn’t it?”. Gospels he read “twice, as a child, then more recently, as well as the Acts of the Apostles”. And the Apocalypse of Saint John. And the writings of Saint Augustine, from whom he borrows his personal motto: “Advance on your path, because it only exists through your walk. » And Bernanos, Pierre Manent recently on Pascal…
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“I am not idle, I am not waiting”: the hopes without illusions of David Lisnard
David Lisnard says he still seeks interiority as soon as possible, to find his Creator there: “I can find God in a forest, a mountain, while walking by the sea, in the beauty of a Mozart opera, whose arrangements go beyond the human condition, like in a piece by the Clash.”
Confronted recently “to this upsetting, very painful end-of-life situation for several months”the mayor of Cannes finally declares himself “not favorable” to a law on the end of life, fearing a “major anthropological shift” and pointing out the excesses of certain foreign countries (Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, etc.).
