For the third time, Pope Francis is preparing to cross French borders. After his visit to Strasbourg, in 2014 – to visit the European Parliament –, and to Marseille, in September 2023, where he participated in Mediterranean Meetings, he goes to Ajaccio on Sunday December 15. As with his previous trips, the sovereign pontiff is not making an official state visit, but will participate in a conference on popular religiosity – the Vatican press release, published on November 23, did not even mention France.
Read also | Article reserved for our subscribers Pope Francis in Corsica: behind the scenes of a visit with many diplomatic and logistical challenges
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This visit to Corsica, just one week after the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris, to which he refused to go – despite multiple invitations sent by the Elysée as well as that of the diocese – obviously does not go unnoticed. As The World revealed in an article from November 9, this agenda had annoyed the Elysée and triggered an angry phone call from Emmanuel Macron's teams to the Archbishop of Ajaccio, Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo, at the initiative of the conference.
On the side of the Holy See, we are careful not to put forward an explanation for the refusal to go to Paris. “The trip to Corsica is part of the logic of other trips to Europe, which have always favored small countries and more bordering places, indicates a highly placed source at the Vatican, who wishes to remain anonymous. Corsica is part of France, but it is also an island in the Mediterranean, this large basin which becomes a tomb for so many migrants. I see a link with the trip to Marseille, none with Paris. This trip to Corsica is completely independent. »
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