“The Pope is more unpredictable than (Donald) Trumpwhen he puts the indicator on the left, it is generally to turn right”, describes a good observer.
The least we can say is that communication regarding the papal trip to Corsica was hesitant. Sculled, one would be tempted to write in these times of contemplation of the beautiful trajectories of the Vendée Globe skippers, currently off the coast of the Canaries, where some also imagine a trip by François in 2025. But a travel project at once.
By the time you read these lines, the Pope's trip to Ajaccio may have been made official. At the end of last week, two good quality sources gave us confirmation on Saturday November 16. Two others, of equal reliability, rather referred to the start of the week of the 18th. Recently, many French media indicated a “imminent announcement”, “in the next few hours”, ” tomorrow “, “in the days to come”…
These variations have a more fundamental cause than a lack of sources or cross-checking of them. In 2013, Francis was elected pope with a clear mandate to restore order to a Curia weakened by scandals. The Argentine pope partly reformed it, but above all established a very personal practice of power consisting very regularly and largely of bypassing his own administration. Under Francis, a “Vatican source”even if she « haute »is not always “well informed”.
Legacy
“Is this trip to Corsica true? “, A heavyweight of the French episcopate reportedly asked a representative of the Vatican diplomatic services in October. This member of the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, in particular responsible for relations with States, would thus have heard of this project to visit the Mediterranean island for the first time.
In September, a comparable source confided on the plane bringing the Pope back from his long trip to Asia: “This summer I would have told you that it was unlikely that the Pope would come to Notre-Dame, but now I don’t know… Maybe. » It was a few days after the publication of an article announcing the pope at the inauguration of the cathedral on December 8, with the source a “influential prelate of the Vatican”. It was also fifteen minutes before Francis declared at a press conference: “I won't go to Paris, I won't go to Paris. »
The study of a possible trip to Corsica was carried out in the greatest secrecy at the Vatican, in direct contact with the diocese of Ajaccio. Part of the Secretariat of State, the Conference of Bishops of France, the Élysée and the French embassy to the Holy See were only informed late. An official invitation, necessary before imagining the pope on French soil, was requested at the beginning of November from the Élysée, which would have sent it. A Vatican delegation went to Ajaccio in recent days to organize the technical details.
This compartmentalization of information remains to be interpreted. And the “Vatican sources” are divided on this point. Should we see François as a great chess player, wishing to remain free in his choices vis-à-vis the Curia or the agenda of a politically weakened Emmanuel Macron? “I rather believe that this trip to Corsica was a decision on a whim, or a crush, linked to his friendship with (the bishop of Ajaccio François) Bustillowhom he created cardinal”, says someone close to the pope, who meets him regularly. This hypothesis, less political, does not prevent him from worrying: “At almost 88 years old and with this mode of operation, I fear that certain choices of François will be less well understood and that he will damage his legacy. » Then again, who knows?
