Keystone-SDA
“Evviva u Papa!”: passing through Corsica on Sunday for a “historic” visit, Pope Francis celebrated a giant mass at the end of a day of crowds and speeches. He notably pleaded for a secularism that is “not static and fixed”.
This content was published on
December 15, 2024 – 5:56 p.m.
(Keystone-ATS) Arriving at the end of the afternoon at the Casone green theater, on the heights of Ajaccio, capital of the French Mediterranean island, the Pope delivered his homily in front of a crowd of 9,000 people made up of faithful, bishops and members of brotherhoods.
Dressed in a pink cape characteristic of the third Sunday of Advent in the Catholic liturgy, he thanked Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo of Corsica “for this entire day during which (he) felt at home” .
“This day is a real anointing for Corsica,” the cardinal replied before offering him, at nightfall, an 11th century score from a convent in Sartène.
In total, some 17,400 people followed the mass, according to a security source, either directly at Casone or on giant screens installed in particular at Place Miot, a large esplanade facing the sea.
« Emotions »
“Solemnity, sincerity, emotion, everything is mixed. There is stress because of his presence to succeed in containing our emotions,” Fabienne Mazza, one of the 300 choristers who sang for the pope, told AFP.
“I find it exceptional, I am moved, it is a magical moment, a unique opportunity,” Solène Pianacci, a 44-year-old school director, said in the morning, under the painted ceilings of the Notre-Dame cathedral. Assumption.
Warmly applauded, greeted by cries of “evviva u papa!” » (“long live the Pope” in Corsica), Francis traveled through the city in a popemobile under a radiant sun, blessing many children on his way, a 108-year-old lady and… a pizza handed out by a local merchant.
In this island which is 80% Catholic (according to the Vatican), the Pope defended on Sunday morning “a concept of secularism which is not static and fixed, but evolving and dynamic”, at the end of a congress on popular religiosity. in the Mediterranean.
On this subject, the subject of recurring controversies in France, he pleaded for a secularism capable of “promoting constant cooperation between civil and ecclesiastical authorities for the good of the entire community, each remaining within the limits of its competences and its space”.
He also warned against “the risk” that “popular piety is used, instrumentalized by groups who intend to strengthen their identity in a polemical manner by fueling particularisms, oppositions, exclusionary attitudes”, in a message that could address Corsican nationalists.
” Peace “
In a second speech at the cathedral, the Argentine Jesuit launched an appeal for “peace” for “the entire Middle East” but also “for the Ukrainian people and the Russian people”. “Peace for the whole world,” he concluded, citing in particular Palestine, Israel, Lebanon and Syria.
After reciting the Angelus prayer, the sovereign pontiff also said “to support in spirit” the victims of the cyclone which devastated the Mayotte archipelago the day before, causing “certainly several hundred” deaths, “may – be” even “a few thousand”, according to the prefect of this poorest department in France.
A week after having snubbed the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, despite the invitation of the Head of State, the Pope, who will celebrate his 88th birthday two days after this trip, was to meet Emmanuel Macron just before his departure to airport.
In a wheelchair, with still a bruise on his face, the result of a fall when getting out of bed a few days ago, he arrived shortly before 9:00 a.m. for this visit, the first ever organized by a pope in Corsica.
The head of the Catholic Church had previously visited French territory twice since the start of his pontificate in 2013, to Strasbourg in 2014 and to Marseille in September 2023, but he has never made a visit there. State.
