According to the president of the bishops of France, the pope will come to the island in mid-December

François will soon have the word Corsica at the top of his agenda. The president of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) indeed spoke on Sunday of the still unofficial visit of the Pope in mid-December to the island of beauty.

“The announcement has not yet been made, it depends on the Holy See for it to be completely official,” recalled Eric de Moulins-Beaufort during a press conference in Lourdes, estimating that “if the Pope decides to come to Corsica on December 15th, it’s very good.”

The Pope expected in Ajaccio

Sources close to the matter indicated Thursday that the Pope wanted to go to Corsica, and that diplomatic contacts were underway between the Vatican and the Elysée around a planned visit in mid-December. In his closing speech to the plenary assembly of the CEF, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort had already mentioned this possible arrival: “if it turns out that Pope Francis comes to Ajaccio the following week” of the reopening of Notre-Dame Lady on December 8, “as the noise continues, we would receive one more stimulation”.

Asked also about the absence of the Pope in Paris on December 8, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort recalled that “there was never really any question of the Pope coming to the opening of Notre-Dame de Paris”. And this “for a very simple reason: the star of the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris is Notre-Dame de Paris, it is not the pope’s visit to France”. “The Pope never intended to come […] look away at him on this occasion,” he added.

A Pope committed “to the Mediterranean”

The president of the CEF also underlined “his (the pope’s) commitment to the Mediterranean, which has a symbolic value but also very effective as a face of the challenges of our world”.

For his part, the Bishop of Limoges Pierre-Antoine Bozo explained that “the occasion of the pope's visit to Corsica would not be Corsica for itself, but a conference on popular religiosity through the devotions of the brotherhoods. “. “It’s a theme that is very close to his heart, and one that he talks about often. The question is not so much Corsica and France as popular devotion on which he perhaps believes he still has things to say,” he added during this press conference.