Patrick Fiori is moved. Met this Sunday, December 15 on the square in front of Ajaccio Cathedral, in front of which he sang for Pope Francis Corsican land with other artists of Corsican origin, including Alizée, the performer of the musical Notre-Dame of Paris comments, inexhaustible, on the first arrival on the island of a pope. “Today, Corsica is the center of the world. A small island, very small, center of the world, it’s exceptional,” affirms the singer, dressed in white, in unison with a territory where this visit had an impressive echo.
Even deep in the Corsican maquis, no one could ignore it. Giant screens have been installed throughout the territory: in Bastia, Porto-Vecchio or in the Piana church… “It’s as if Jesus came to visit us,” enthuses a catechumen she met in the north of the island, from where she followed the broadcast. “Receiving the Pope is recognition of a particular history of Corsica”confirms the historian Antoine-Marie Graziani, himself a member of a brotherhood, present in Ajaccio, where there were many of them with their shoulders covered in the colorful capes of these pillar associations of the Corsican Church.
The Creed in the Street
This Sunday, tens of thousands of people from this former Genoese territory gathered along the Ajaccian roads to greet, or at least see, François, who came here to highlight the Corsican singularity in terms of popular religiosity and the expression of a “healthy secularism”he said. Rarely for a trip to France, especially in the Mediterranean, Francis did not speak about migrants.
First sign of this particularism, upon the descent of the papal plane, on the tarmac where the resigning Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau was present, the Republican Guard lingered a little too much on the Vatican anthem. François had already entered the airport before the orchestra – hardly suspecting Corsican nationalism – had time to sing The Marseillaise. A simple setback, the French anthem resounded as soon as the Argentine pope left, who immediately began his nine-hour pastoral visit with a first walkabout, in a popemobile, on the seafront.
“I believe in God, the Father Almighty…” The first strong scene of this fast-paced journey took place in front of the San-Ghjuvà (Saint-Jean) baptistery, near the first paleo-Christian remains of the city. A sign that religion can be expressed in the public space here, the pope's car parked on the side of the road to let Francis listen to Léo, a teenager in a purple scarf, recite the Creed in the middle of the street, the prayer adopted during the Council of Nicaea, whose 1,700th anniversary will be celebrated in 2025. Francis could on this occasion go to Turkey, for a new Mediterranean stopover. The 12e (excluding Italy) since his election in 2013.
Traditions of a living community
Under radiant sunshine, the Pope, who will be 88 years old on December 17, then returned to the Palais des Congrès to close a conference on “popular religiosity in the Mediterranean”. The latter had been imagined after Francis expressed his desire to come to Corsica, touched by the story of the trip to the island in the spring of the number three of the Vatican, the substitute of the Secretariat of State Mgr Edgar Peña Parra, close to the Cardinal and Bishop of Ajaccio François Bustillo. It was the latter who began by speaking at the Palais des Congrès, after a few polyphonic songs.
“It is a great discovery to see how popular piety makes it possible to place faith in the public sphere without creating tensions and social tensions”said the young 56-year-old cardinal, who spent the day sitting next to Francis aboard the popemobile. A sign of his popularity, nearly 800 Corsicans accompanied him to Rome in September 2023 to celebrate his creation as a cardinal.
Following him, the pope delivered his first and most important speech of the day, first observing that, “in European countries, the question of God seems to fade.” Fortunately, in the face of modernity and secularization, faith can be saved by popular religiosity, believes the Argentine pope. Synthesizing his thoughts developed in his last encyclical, He loved usFrancis then insisted on the limits of this religiosity. Superstition, folklore, but above all instrumentalization. “The risk (is that) popular piety is used, instrumentalized by groups who intend to strengthen their identity in a polemical manner, by fueling particularisms, oppositions, exclusionary attitudes”, explained the Pope, while certain far-right minority groups, such as the Palatinu association, wish to defend Catholicism as the central element of Corsican identity.
“We must avoid popular piety being only external at the risk of falling into folklore, added one of the speakers at the conference, Mgr Roberto Carboni, Archbishop of Oristano, in Sardinia, present at the Congress Center. The faith of the simple must be valued. We must avoid theology being only cold and intellectual. »
A “virtuous” example
Attached to simple expressions of faith, such as blessing a statue or participating in a procession, the pope defended their place in society, calling for «develop a concept of secularism which is not static and fixed, but evolving and dynamic, capable of adapting to different or unforeseen situations, and of promoting constant cooperation between civil and ecclesiastical authorities (…), each remaining within the limits of their skills and space». Citing his predecessor Benedict XVI, Francis finally described what in his eyes constitutes a « healthy secularism » and praised the Corsican model of dialogue between civil and religious authorities in this area: «You are a virtuous example in Europe. Continue ! », said the pope.
His arrival on the island, described as a time “in harmony”, brought together many elected officials of different sensibilities. “It’s a real moment of grace,” described in Ajaccio Aline Castellani, mayor of Piana and director of pilgrimages for the diocese. The visit also involved other cultures or religions: the association Les Bienfaiteurs marocains de Corse thus raised the sum of €10,000 to participate in the organization of the papal trip.
On the island, all the priests interviewed in fact rent a “peaceful secularism”as Father Georges Nicoli expresses it. “ Here, we know that it is not the negation or rejection of religions», assures the priest of Bastia in the cathedral of Ajaccio, where the pope continued his call for a revival of the faith, in Corsica and elsewhere in France. A sign that this visit to Ajaccio was indeed a trip to France, Francis was welcomed by the president of the Conference of Bishops of France, Mgr Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, in the building where Napoleon was baptized in 1771.
“Most Holy Father, with all my heart on behalf of all the bishops and the French, thank you for your coming to Corsica and France”, said the Archbishop of Reims, who had called during the last Plenary Assembly of bishops in Lourdes to experience this visit as “one more stimulation” after the reopening with great fanfare of Paris Cathedral on December 7 and 8. The absence of the Pope at this also historic event had been widely commented on.
Like at home
During his speech, Mgr Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, who recalled his Corsican origins, spoke to Francis about “need to receive priests in France”. Despite an attachment to popular traditions, Corsican Christianity is in fact not spared from the decline in practice and vocations. So, facing an audience very touched by his presence, the Pope wanted to say “thank you”, “take care of yourself”. In the cathedral choir, Francis finally addressed “from this Mediterranean island a call for peace” in the Middle East. “Let us pray for the victims of cyclone which in recent hours hit the Mayotte archipelago, he added. I support in spirit those who have been affected by this tragedy. »
Before heading back to the airport, where he met the head of state Emmanuel Macron, François presided over the mass in pink liturgical vestments at the foot of a monument to the glory of Napoleon. A new sign of a Corsican expression of secularism, the first reading was read in Corsican by a political figure, the president of the island's assembly Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis. There, while the magnificent light of the end of the afternoon projected the shadow of the palm trees on the crowd of approximately 8,000 people gathered at the “green theater” of the Casone, the Pope, much applauded during his homily , thanked the Corsicans for this «day during which I felt at home!, he said. Go forward in harmony, in distinction which is not separation, always working together for the common good,” asked the acclaimed Pope.
Throughout this day, something seems to have been woven between the Argentine pope and the inhabitants of this island, whose beauty he called for to be preserved. Élise, 32, who came from Bastia with her husband and son, does not say the opposite. Her 15-month-old little boy, Sanmarcu, was blessed by the hands of François, whom the young brunette woman, still moved, describes as “a universal pope… therefore Corsican”.
