President Emmanuel Macron will attend the high mass given by Pope Francis at the Vélodrome stadium in Marseille on Saturday September 23, which will be a “popular” and “festive” event, the Elysée said on Thursday.
Rejecting criticism from left-wing elected officials who considered that such a presence would be contrary to the principle of secularism, the entourage of the Head of State considered that the separation between Church and State did not “absolutely exclude not that the Republic maintains relations” with “all religions”. He clarified that the president would not participate “in the Eucharist,” that is, he would not receive communion.
As of Wednesday, deputies from La France insoumise (LFI) were outraged on Wednesday at the possibility, revealed by La Croix, that Emmanuel Macron would attend the giant mass. “I respect the faith and the faithful. But, I disagree with the fact that an elected official and in particular the President of the Republic, participates in his capacity in a religious ceremony,” LFI MP Alexis Corbière was indignant on X (formerly Twitter). It’s “a mistake,” he insisted in a separate message.
“The Pope is welcome in France. His action for migrants in the Mediterranean can be decisive,” said Insoumis leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the same platform. “Macron is doing the incrustation without respect for his own function. The whistles at mass will be for him, not for the Pope,” he said, referring to the recent boos received by the Head of State at the Stade de France during the opening of the Rugby World Cup.
Visit on the migration issue
Referring to the recent controversy over the abaya, a traditional garment worn by Muslim women banned since the start of the school year, LFI deputy Bastien Lachaud estimated on X that Emmanuel Macron “makes fun of secularism and tramples on its principles, the separation of Church and State, the neutrality of the State vis-à-vis religions.”
“It’s pushing back a bill so as not to risk offending the head of the Catholic Church, it’s going to the pontiff’s mass… Ah, is there no longer any secularism that holds up, all of a sudden?
The mass presided over by Francis, visiting Marseille on the migration issue on September 22 and 23, is to be held at the velodrome stadium which has 60,000 seats.
The sovereign pontiff will attend the meeting of the bishops of the Mediterranean during his stay and will travel in a popemobile on Avenue du Prado. It must also pay tribute to migrants and the suffering they endure in search of a better life. He repeated this summer that he was going “to Marseille, not to France”, recalling that it was not a state visit.
