The Pope… And now the President of the Republic. On September 23, the Marseille city risks being somewhat congested by the ballet of official vans. “Emmanuel Macron will be present to meet the sovereign pontiff”, slips a source close to the organizers. Will the head of state, guarantor of respect for secularism, attend the mass that Francis will celebrate at the Vélodrome stadium or will he prefer to greet the pope in a small committee?
“For the moment, the Élysée has not confirmed”, specifies a close friend of the Archbishop of Marseille, Jean-Marc Aveline. In the meantime in the Marseille city, things are becoming clearer. The first great public mass ever celebrated in France by the sovereign pontiff will take place at 4:45 p.m., in the legendary stadium between two matches of the Rugby World Cup.
A rest room for the pope
On the initiative of Benoît Payan, the mayor (DVG) of Marseille, a compromise was finally reached on the amount of the additional insurance premium claimed by the organizer of the international sports competition in order to cover possible damage to the lawn. It now remains to refine the organization of the event: an altar adjoining a rest room where the 86-year-old pope, who is accumulating health problems, will be able to breathe, will be erected in the enclosure and all the camera equipment equipping the stadium will have to be reorganized: we do not follow the homily of a pope in the same way as the trajectory of an oval ball!
For security reasons, entry to the 60,000-seat venue will be filtered: “Access will of course be free, but only people with a named ticket will be able to attend the celebration, specifies- we at the diocese of Marseille. For the others, giant screens will be set up everywhere outside, including in the Pharo district. »
Better that, because the head of the Church has left to fill the stadium: a little less than 3 months from D-Day, nearly 60,000 requests have already reached the diocese to attend this mass which will be the point of organ of this whirlwind visit. Will Emmanuel Macron take his place in the official gallery?
Appearances at measured offices
It has been customary for the last fifty years that the Presidents of the Republic maintain a relationship with religion that is not very ostentatious, beyond their personal beliefs. Baptized Catholic at the age of 12 at his request, Emmanuel Macron, without ever having been a practitioner, is however at ease with spirituality. The question of “transcendence” comes up regularly in his speeches and he explained that he had his “mystical” period as a teenager.
His appearances at offices, as President of the Republic, were always very measured, in accordance with the respect for neutrality observed by his predecessors who, when they were believers, went to the Sunday office as a simple parishioner. occasion of their vacation. For Johnny Halliday’s funeral, we remember Emmanuel Macron’s hesitation when, seizing the bottle brush, he finally put it down, preferring to place both hands flat on the old rocker’s white coffin to pay homage to him, without exposing itself to criticism.
With the arrival of the pope who arrives on the shores of the Mediterranean as a spiritual leader – and not as head of state of the Vatican -, Emmanuel Macron, guarantor of respect for secularism in France, will once again have to find the right formula.
2023-06-04 12:24:13
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