Simple present or small annoyance? Emmanuel Macron offered Pope Francis the official book of the restoration of Notre-Dame, “Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris”, a week after the reopening ceremony of the cathedral which the sovereign pontiff had not attended, despite of the invitation extended to him by the French head of state.
The reopening after five years of work, on December 7 and 8, took place in the presence of numerous personalities including Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky and Elon Musk on Saturday. The sovereign pontiff, however, did not make the trip. By way of explanation, several French bishops had highlighted Francis' attachment to the “peripheries” and his calendar constraints.
The two men therefore met this Sunday at the end of the day at Ajaccio airport, at the end of the whirlwind visit that the sovereign pontiff made to Corsica. The meeting began around 6 p.m. in an airport lounge before the pope took off. “It is a great honor for the city of Ajaccio, for Corsica and for France to welcome you,” said the head of state.
Emmanuel Macron also gave François an old edition of Charles Péguy, “Presentation of Beauce at Notre-Dame de Chartres”, according to the Élysée. The sovereign pontiff seemed very interested in this work by the French writer, whose entire work is imbued with a deep Christian faith.
This Sunday in Corsica, Pope Francis celebrated a giant mass at the end of a day of crowds and speeches where he pleaded for a secularism that is “not static and fixed”. In this island which is 80% Catholic (according to the Vatican), the Pope defended “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 competence and of its space”.
