A spiritual leader with a very political head! At the start of the second day of his visit to Marseille, from the Palais du Pharo which dominates Marseille, at the conclusion of the Mediterranean meetings, we found the Jesuit Francis, who likes nothing more than taking advantage of his trips to emblematic places to pose strong words engaged in public debate. In Marseille, “gate of hope”, “plural and familiar city”, “capital of the integration of peoples”, surrounded by bishops from the five shores of the Mediterranean, in front of a packed auditorium of public, economic and community figures. civil society, Francis rediscovered the momentum of his committed encyclicals, launching into a beautiful, long and abundant meditation on the sea, the port, the lighthouse, beginning a “Mediterranean theology” anchored in reality, because, a- he said, triggering approving nods from Emmanuel Macron, “laboratory theology doesn’t work.”
For Francis, “the Mare Nostrum concentrates all the challenges of the world.” The climate challenge and biodiversity – the themes of his encyclical Laudato Si, of which he will publish an updated version on October 5 –, fraternity – also the subject of his encyclical Fratelli tutti –, solidarity, sharing… “Yes, said the pope, the Mediterranean expresses a vital, open, conciliatory thought, a community thought”. Alas, he sighed, “the Mediterranean, the cradle of civilization has become the tomb of dignity”, referring again and again to the tragedies of migrants, and more broadly to the tragedies experienced by the poor “who are faces, not numbers.”
This meditation served by strong images and shocking formulas, evangelical but also poetic at certain moments, therefore also had, let us emphasize, as always with this Jesuit pope, an eminently political nature. Francis became angry to denounce delinquency, prostitution, mafia networks which make the most vulnerable “slaves”, pointing to “the cries of pain which rise from Africa and the Middle East”. He sharply attacked “belligerent nationalisms which want to destroy the community of nations”, but also sent a firm warning to young people to “be careful of all fundamentalisms which are preached and which frighten”.
In front of Emmanuel Macron and his wife, as well as the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, the mayors of Marseille present – ??Benoît Payan – and former – Jean-Claude Gaudin – the pope called on political leaders, and more broadly the European Union , but also everyone, has a duty of solidarity, social justice, universal charity and sharing. By asking that “those who take refuge among us are not considered a burden”, preaching integration rather than “rigid in its paradigms” assimilation. “We need a surge of conscience to say no to inequality, yes to solidarity! » he insisted. He is a pope who wants to spread the word to build “bridges” – another Bergoglian fad – between the five disparate shores of the Mediterranean, the worlds of opulence and precariousness, and all believers. And he charged his bishops, in mercy, to invite the Church not to be “a series of prescriptions but a port of hope and encouragement.”
