The pope will go to Corsica but not to Notre-Dame de Paris: faced with the astonishment that this program may arouse, several French bishops highlight Francis' attachment to the “peripheries” and his calendar constraints.
The Vatican announced on Saturday that Pope Francis would go to Ajaccio on December 15 for a one-day “apostolic trip”, at the invitation of the bishop of the diocese François-Xavier Bustillo.
Even before the visit was confirmed, the rumor had spread during the autumn meeting of French bishops (CEF) at the beginning of November in Lourdes, arousing satisfaction… But also astonishment. “Some bishops were annoyed” by the announcement, says one of them.
How to explain this whirlwind visit? “The Pope is emotional, he let himself be convinced by Bustillo! » says another French bishop. Bishop Bustillo was created cardinal in September 2023 by Pope Francis, who also prefaced the work “The Heart is Not Divided” of which he is co-author.
The Bishop of Corsica refutes any “seduction operation”: he certainly discussed such a trip with the Pope in April, but “I didn't force it”, he assures AFP.
No “trial of intent”
This visit goes all the less unnoticed as the Pope will not attend, a week earlier, the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris on the weekend of December 7 and 8.
However, everyone recalls it, like the president of the CEF Éric de Moulins-Beaufort: “it was never really a question of the pope coming” to Paris.
“The star of the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris is Notre-Dame de Paris” and François did not want to “look away from it on this occasion,” he assures. In Paris, several heads of state and artists have been invited to the ceremony which will see Emmanuel Macron deliver a speech in front of the cathedral.
Several bishops also call not to “accuse the Pope of his intentions” on this subject: “It is not an attitude against France”, asserts one, nor “distrust towards the president” according to one other. “The Pope is unpredictable and works a lot by feeling,” a Vatican source reminds AFP.
Other calendar constraints: the pope is held at the Vatican on December 7 and 8 by a “consistory” where he will create 21 cardinals; and it would have been difficult to delay the trip, given the traffic jam of events in Rome in 2025, the year of the “jubilee” (celebrated every 25 years).
Peripheries and challenges of the world
Francis will travel to Ajaccio for the closing of a conference on “popular religiosity in the Mediterranean”. “It’s a theme that is very close to his heart, about which he speaks often” and on which “he perhaps believes he still has things to say,” recalls the Bishop of Limoges Pierre-Antoine Bozo.
Religiosity remains strong in Corsica, a predominantly Catholic island with more than 430 parishes and 61 active priests. “There is a real, true rooting of popular religiosity in the Corsican tradition (…) It is simple and joyful” and “this popular side, I think the Pope is very sensitive to it,” explains Mgr Bustillo.
Jorge Bergoglio in fact has the habit of “going where his predecessors did not come so much”, that is to say “in small countries, where there are few Christians” or in those “where there are there are difficult situations of war or tension,” recalled the Archbishop of Paris Laurent Ulrich on November 13.
Since his election in 2013, Francis has taken care to avoid large European countries with a Catholic heritage, preferring the usually neglected countries of Asia, Africa or the southern hemisphere, which he calls the “peripheries”. of the Church.
And the subject of the conference also highlights a recurring concern of the Pope for the Mediterranean, with “symbolic” value as “a figure of the challenges of our world”, according to Éric de Moulins-Beaufort. During his visit to Marseille in September 2023, François launched a vibrant appeal in favor of migrants.
There remains, among the reasons for astonishment, the suddenness of the announcement at the end of the year: as Christmas approaches “the agenda is busy”, recalls a bishop, which could complicate the coming of some to Corsica.
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