Mimoun Bihi is a “Moroccan, Muslim and Ajaccian” municipal agent, and for him the historic arrival of Pope Francis in Ajaccio on Sunday is “a Christmas gift that all of Corsica was waiting for”.
In the streets of the imperial city, deserted by cars due to massive parking bans, there is excitement a few hours before the arrival of the sovereign pontiff on Sunday, the first visit of a pope to this Mediterranean island of 350,000 residents.
The port city is adorned, little by little, with yellow and white, the papal colors, sometimes associated with the bandera, the Corsican flag, composed of a Moor's head on a white background.
On the facade of a hotel, a huge red fabric cross, four stories high, was installed.
Some 2,200 reinforcements of police, gendarmes and other CRS and civil security soldiers, who are added to the thousand members of the police present permanently on the Isle of Beauty, have arrived, welcomed Jérôme Filippini, the prefect of Corsica. 800 will stay on board the Corsica Linea boat that brought them.
The sovereign pontiff will be welcomed Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. at the airport with children's songs in Corsican, before a stroll in a “papamobile” on the city's seafront.
He will then go to the convention center to close the conference on “popular religiosity in the Mediterranean”, which brought together 250 people on Saturday.
Referring to the pope's arrival, Father Georges Nicoli, priest of the Notre-Dame de Lourdes parish in Bastia, assured AFP that “just his presence will boost people. There will be adrenaline but I I don't want it to be a flash of adrenaline and then nothing more. I hope that it will remind us that the Christian faith must be rooted in a way of life.
“He comes to the poor and the little ones, it’s very popular,” rejoiced Hélène Politi who will sing for the high mass in public with 250 choristers.
At the Notre-Dame de l'Assomption Cathedral, whose facade has just been repainted, the Pope will address the clergy around the Angelus prayer, after songs in front of the building by two local artists, Patrick Fiori and Alizée, said Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo.
– Clergy in pink –
Near the church, a colorful street-art-style fresco, created by a collective of Ajaccian artists, represents François against a backdrop of stained glass windows and a colored map of Corsica.
“This visit is huge,” confides to AFP Mathias Flori, a 34-year-old restaurateur from Bastia who has just bought one of the 10,000 souvenir kits (t-shirt, night light, etc.) put on sale by the diocese to finance the visit.
Sales stands manned by volunteers have sprung up all over the streets of the city.
However, he did not manage to obtain one of the 9,000 places to attend the highlight of the papal visit on Sunday afternoon, the open-air mass at the large Casone theater where Pascal Obispo will sing and the Corsican brotherhoods will make a procession.
On this esplanade dominated by a tall statue of Napoleon, a large wooden cross with an anchor-shaped base has been installed as well as giant screens. A white banner with the words “A Pace” (“Peace” in Corsican: Editor's note) overlooks the scene where the pope will preside over the mass.
“We are proud, it is a privilege that he comes here rather than in Paris,” Paule Negroni, a 52-year-old librarian from Ajaccio, told AFP.
“It’s a global event” on “a very pious, very religious land, Corsica,” also enthuses Jean-François Ferrandini, a 68-year-old retiree.
For his 47th international trip since his election in 2013 and the third in 2024, the pope will deliver “a message of peace, ten days before Christmas”, indicated the bishop of Corsica, François-Xavier Bustillo, specifying that priests, bishops and deacons will be dressed in pink, as required by the liturgy halfway through Advent, the period when the faithful prepare to celebrate Christmas.
“He does not come here to play politics, he comes to be a pastor among his people,” he summarized.
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