“Leone XIV potrebbe risvegliare l'occidente”. Partendo dalla Francia

Rome. Even Libération is devoting page after page to the Pope’s visit to France, even before the visit has begun (he is due to land in Paris on Friday). This is indicative of the event’s significance; expectations are high, and even amongst the most staunch anti-clericals there is a certain curiosity as to what Leo XIV will say during his four days in the City of Light, Lourdes and Metz, the birthplace of Robert Schuman. Of course, there are those in the left-wing daily who are calling for a ‘vade retro’, but still: with the presidential elections just a few months away – elections that could change everything – the impact of the Supreme Pontiff’s visit to the homeland of dogmatic secularism is bound to yield some results. It remains to be seen in what way, ça va sans dire. But what will Leo say to the French? 

Of course, he will deliver his sermons and preside over the evocative torchlight procession in Lourdes, but it is the purely political aspect that is attracting the keen attention of observers, experts in ecclesiastical matters and historians. As is only to be expected, his relationship with Emmanuel Macron has come under the microscope – the president who was denied by the Vatican a gala dinner, military honours with the Presidential Guard, various other honours and even permission to accompany Leo on a tour of Notre-Dame: the Pope is going there for Vespers, not for guided tours. There is no animosity; it is simply that, for Rome, the trip is an apostolic journey, not a state visit. A glance at the programme would be enough to realise this. This is not a spur-of-the-moment reaction to local grandeur, nor is it due to an overly political interpretation of the trip: proof of this is the fact that on Monday, in Metz, bilateral meetings between the Pontiff and some foreign leaders could also take place, should the conditions be right. But everything in its own time and place: in Metz, there will be much talk of Europe, the process of integration, its origins and its current state. People go to Notre-Dame to sing the Magnificat. And so be it for the purists of laïcité who protested against the Mass at the Place de la Concorde, a place that should never, ever host the head of supreme ignorance. Be that as it may: the best response came from the 600,000 people who attended the Eucharistic celebration.

Cardinal François-Xavier Bustillo, Bishop of Ajaccio, told Le Figaro that “the Pope is coming first and foremost in the name of life: this is the meaning behind the slogan for his visit. But he is not coming to preach. He will clearly set out his vision of life, in a free country, at a time when we are constantly hearing of so many deaths. Our country, and the West in general, is rather thanatophilic: the death of the planet, the death of a political system, the death of an economic system, the death of the Church, and so on. Ultimately, it is depressing. After all, who is still proclaiming life? This ties in with another concern on a French, European and almost global scale: the demographic winter. Why winter and not spring? At the root of this lie many fears: of the future, of running out of money, of losing one’s way. The driving force of the West is, tragically, fear. And with fear as the driving force, we cannot move forward. If we close maternity wards, increase the number of care homes for the elderly, and pass a law on euthanasia, then what future can a people like this possibly have? Believing in life is a matter of urgency for the country.”

It is clear, therefore, that Leo XIV will by no means gloss over the issues that have most fuelled the debate between the government and the diverse array of opponents to the end-of-life bill – comprising a laity more proactive than it has been in years and a episcopate steadfast in its rejection of the text approved by the National Assembly. But this will obviously not be the central focus of the visit. “The Pope has a duty to speak,” added Bustillo, “and through his words he will convey hope, values and a call to Christian identity.” What is certain is that “the state is secular, but society is secularised. The distinction is important,” the Bishop of Ajaccio told Le Figaro. “This country has recently seen a surge in requests for adult baptism, and the Pope is not indifferent to this phenomenon. Many set off for India, Tibet or the Amazon in search of a moment of spirituality. Others, on the contrary, are rediscovering their roots in the Church. The Pope tells us that Europe – the old Europe – is not dead: he has visited Spain and Monte Carlo, and is coming to France. John Paul II reawakened the East; Leo XIV might reawaken the West. There is a fine complementarity with Francis, who had focused more on the peripheries. Leo, on the other hand, also addresses countries with an ancient Catholic tradition, whose cultural and spiritual heritage deserves to be revived, without arrogance or complexes’. Cardinal Bustillo, who has recently published the book La necessità di riparare (San Paolo), is a great advocate of ‘popular religion’, that is, ‘a people who set out in procession, in celebrations, in confraternities. It is important that this dimension coexists within the Church alongside a more intellectual or mystical aspect. But you don’t need to have read St Thomas’s Summa to take part in a procession.”