It's official, the pope will visit Corsica on December 15, a week after the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral which he refused to attend. For the writer and editor Arthur Chevallier, it proves that between the Pope and the French, things are a bit stuck… This is his opinion decided this Tuesday on RMC.
Let's not beat around the bush: Pope Francis does not like France. He has already had the opportunity to show it several times. Each time he comes to a French city, he is careful to specify that he is going to Strasbourg, Marseille, Corsica, but never to France. He visits the faithful, individuals, but not our country.
But how to explain it? Pope Francis does not like Europe in general, in fact, he comes there very little. For him, the future of Catholicism lies in Asia and Africa, not on our aging continent. However, relations between the popes and France had not been so bad for several years.
John Paul II came to Paris twice, in 1980 at the invitation of UNESCO, and in 1997 for World Youth Day. Benedict XVI was a great Francophile. He came with great fanfare to Paris in 2008. A trip where he delivered a mass in front of the Invalides. Hold on tight: the event brought together 260,000 people, more than three times the Stade de France.
The clear opinion of Arthur Chevallier: The popes and France, “I love you neither” – 26/11
An adjustment variable
Historically, there have been other major meetings with the popes. There is even a time when the popes lived in France, in the city of Avignon. It was the 14th century, there was conflict within the Church and so there were two popes. One in Italy, and one in the city of Avignon. After that, there were ups and downs. But it really exploded at the time of the French Revolution.
Here, we are going a little strong against the Church. We enter into conflict with Rome, and our soldiers will take the pope of the time, Pius VI, prisoner. They catch him in Rome, take him to France, and leave him to die pitifully in the city of Valencia in 1799.
Brutal, but the worst is that we start again right after, with his successor, Pius VII. This time, Napoleon is in power. The latter wants the pope to obey him on all subjects. The Pope does not give up.
Napoleon gets angry, and rebels. The Pope was kidnapped in Rome and taken to France where he was taken prisoner at the Château de Fontainebleau. This time, we ended up releasing him, but all this didn't leave only good memories… It doesn't really make you want to come.
So there is a liability. For France, the Pope has always been an adjustment variable. We love it especially when we need it. When we welcome Francis, we are not welcoming the head of the Catholic Church, but simply a head of state, that of the Vatican. No more, no less. It is the republican principle that applies. So obviously he doesn't like it. And we are ultimately doing very well without it.
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