The Pope’s Visit to Marseille: A Message of Unity and Solidarity

“The Pope who visits the Good Mother, who goes to burn his candle among the others, that’s not nothing. It’s been several centuries since that happened to us!” laughs Jean-Marc Aveline, putting on a Marseille accent. And what about mass in the temple of football! “If he goes to the stadium, it’s like he’s going to people’s homes, it’s like he’s visiting them.” Monsignor Aveline is struck by “the joy in the eyes of the Marseillais like kids eight days before Christmas”.

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Marseille city-message

“What I feel is that Marseille is more than a city, it is a message. In any identity, there is always an element of otherness. And it is thanks to that that we can be welcoming to others” defends the fervent supporter of his city. These Met are in line with the vocation of Marseille. “If it can show the world that beyond the clichés, she has a message and that she lives it, well that’s a win!”

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In the midst of the Lampedusa migration crisis

After Bari in 2020, then Florence, Marseille is a turning point in what was originally the meeting of around fifty bishops from the five shores of the Mediterranean. “Marseille must give new impetus”. And this involves the work of 70 young people from 25 countries who will work on the four challenges of this basin: poverty, the environment, migration and geopolitical tensions.

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One of the highlights from the arrival of the Pope is this meditation in front of the stele for sailors and migrants who died at sea, next to Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde. “The political context has become very busy in recent weeks. But after all, it’s not bad! This allows the Church not to give lessons, but to be at the service of the voice of those we I don’t usually hear.” The archbishop insists on the complexity of the migration question.
“We do not solve the problems of immigration by simply saying that we must welcome. Of course we must welcome, we must welcome with a view to the common good. It is the common good of migrants, but also the good of all.

Presentation of the issues of these Meetings © Radio France – Christophe Van Veen

Don’t just look at the Pope!

François is “impatient to go to Marseille” tells us his close friend from the South-East. And all of Marseille is equally impatient. But these meetings are not limited to the coming of the Holy Father. A festival with no less than a hundred events aims “to take the city on board”, “as many people as possible”. Marseille is “a step in a long pilgrimage that began ten years ago in Lampedusa. The importance of respect for human dignity is intangible in the Christian faith. The point is not to look at the Pope. He is not coming for that. He comes so that with him we can look at the Mediterranean, so that we can see the dramas taking place there, and its resources.”. Catholic or political message? Definitely a bit of both. Will the President of the Republic present at the Vélodrome mass be able to hear? “The challenge is for France to understand its own responsibility. We have an important Mediterranean facade. It cannot look away.”

2023-09-18 01:35:03
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