One day after the controversy generated by the announcement of his presence at the papal mass, during the arrival of Pope Francis on September 23 in the Marseille city, Emmanuel Macron speaks this Friday, September 15. The president defended his decision to attend the service the pope will give next week, saying he would go as the “president” of a secular country but not as a “Catholic.”
“I consider it my place to go. I will not go as a Catholic, I will go as President of the Republic which is in fact secular,” he underlined during a trip to Semur-en-Auxois, in Côte-d’Or. And added: “I myself will not have religious practice during this mass,” he added.
Faced with criticism from the left, who believes that in the name of secularism, a French president should not attend this giant religious service, what’s more in front of tens of thousands of people, Emmanuel Macron recalled that the pope had the rank of head of state and that his presence did not call into question the neutrality of the state.
“The state is neutral. Public services are neutral and we preserve the school too and we recalled this at the start of the school year,” he added, in an allusion to the ban in schools on the abaya, a loose and covering worn by Muslim women.
As of Wednesday, the possibility of him attending this mass, the highlight of Pope Francis’ visit on September 22 and 23 to Marseille, had aroused indignant criticism from La France insoumise.
“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 these capacities in a religious ceremony,” MP Alexis Corbière said on X (ex-Twitter).
“It is not necessarily the place of the President of the Republic to attend a mass” in a “secular republic”, reacted Thursday the leader of the communists Fabien Roussel.
The presence at a papal mass is a first for a French head of state since that celebrated in 1980 by John Paul II on the square in front of Notre-Dame in the presence of Valéry Giscard d’Estaing.
In June 2017, shortly after his first election, Emmanuel Macron participated in the annual iftar (fast-breaking dinner) of the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM), the representative body of France’s second religion.