A perfect sun, piercing in the morning the blue sky of the airport runway where, on the summit of Monte d'Oro, the first snows of the year can be seen. After the storm and rain of the day before, Pope Francis arrived in calm weather, Sunday morning, December 15, at Ajaccio airport. “ Less one hour flight », insisted many Corsicans to say that he came as a neighbor and that Rome was, at least geographically, much closer to Corsica than to Paris. A third trip to France for the Holy Father (after Strasbourg in 2014 and Marseille in 2023), a historic first for the island which had never hosted a pope. Arriving before 9 a.m., leaving an hour later than expected, at 7 p.m., his mass ended with a vibrant God save you Regina – both an ode to Mary and an anthem of Corsica – and sung by a moving crowd of pilgrims, ecclesiastics and politicians mixed together. The highlight of the day.
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His high mass began shortly before 4 p.m. at Casone, on the heights of Ajaccio, in front of at least 7,500 people. For the occasion, the Franco-Spanish Cardinal François Bustillo, created just a year ago by Pope Francis in Rome, carefully chose the images he dreamed of offering to the world: a warm, good-natured and sunny, the opposite of the bling-bling, hand-picked and rainy Parisian ceremony at Notre-Dame, eight days earlier. Prelates dressed in pink chasubles symbolizing joy for the third Sunday of Advent, choirs in the open air, babies brandished and blessed by the Sovereign Pontiff, faithful who know the words of the songs sung at each stage of the day, pilgrims coming with their picnics in their backpacks, by little train, by boat from Bastia… A real celebration.
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