“Rebuild Notre-Dame de Paris. » In a lounge at the Napoleon-Bonaparte airport in Ajaccio, Emmanuel Macron offered Pope Francis the official book on the restoration of the cathedral. The absence of the pope at its reopening on December 8 had been widely commented on, with some editorialists diagnosing that the Argentine pope “hate France”. 60% of French people, however, judge that Francis had “reason to prefer the popular faith in Corsica”according to an Odoxa-Backbone Consulting survey/Le Figaro published on December 13.
Organized at the end of a nine-hour express and historic pastoral visit by the Pope to the Isle of Beauty, the start of this meeting between heads of state lasting approximately forty minutes – accessible to the press before the exchange does not continue behind closed doors – left the image of a cordial understanding between the two men, who appeared tactile and smiling. During the traditional exchange of gifts, Francis notably turned a few pages of his exhortation Rejoice and rejoice, which he offered to Emmanuel Macron, indicating by a bookmark the passage where Thomas More's recommendation to keep joy is cited – this was already the theme of the homily he had just delivered in front of several thousand people gathered for the final mass of his Ajaccian trip in the “green theater” of Casone.
“Thank you for coming this far. This gesture shows your personality, the search for the meeting. Thank you very much for the time you gave me,” said the Pope to the President of the Republic, who made the round trip in Falcon from Villacoublay where he left at 4 p.m. The latter thanked Francis for the message of support for the victims of the cyclone in Mayotte delivered a little earlier in the day during the Angelus, from Ajaccio Cathedral.
“The two heads of state expressed their full support for the victims of the cyclone in Mayotte. In the presence of His Holiness, the President expressed his solidarity with our thousands of suffering compatriots,” communicated the Élysée shortly after the exchange, indicating that “the President of the Republic congratulated His Holiness for the organization of the Jubilee of Hope which will begin in 9 days and which will send a message of peace and hope throughout the world. France will provide its full support”.
The relations between a pope and a president of the Republic are always difficult to analyze. Of course, the relationship between Emmanuel Macron and François has evolved. Weakened by a political crisis since his dissolution of the Assembly on June 9, the President of the Republic no longer represents exactly the same thing internationally as in 2018. As for the Argentine Pope, who celebrates his 88th birthday this Tuesday, December 17, the themes of his encyclicals and speeches seem to have changed a little. In Corsica, where he came to talk about the popular faith, François did not talk about migrants – the theme of his last two trips to France.
AI Summit
There are also areas of contention, in particular concerning the laws on assisted reproduction or even euthanasia, promoted by the French head of state, of liberal sensibilities. But the latter have always existed, already under Benedict XVI or John Paul II. And they do not prevent bilateral exchanges from continuing between France and the Vatican. Telephone calls concerning the situation in Lebanon are, for example, very regular between senior officials of French and Vatican diplomacy, who exchange information.
During the exchange at Ajaccio airport, the two heads of state would have discussed Ukraine, the Middle East and in particular Syria, as well as security issues in the Sahel, the situation in Haiti, in Sudan and the Great Lakes region, according to the Elysée press release.
“The two heads of state also addressed subjects on which the Vatican and France are particularly mobilized, such as the fight against climate change as well as the governance and regulation of artificial intelligence. (IA) », he adds. This last subject of AI, on which many people are working at the Vatican, has been the subject of increased exchanges in recent weeks between France and the Holy See. An International Summit for Action on Artificial Intelligence will be held in Paris in February 2025.
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