Leone’s debut in France is an attack on the sacred principle of laïcité

Rome. No, the highlight of Leo XIV’s first day in France was not the quip about Trump (“You are welcome here,” he told journalists on the plane). There was much more to it. The Pope landed at Orly, welcomed by Emmanuel Macron, went to the Élysée Palace and immediately stated that “at times I note with concern the current trends in society that risk distorting science and technology, transforming them into profit-driven ventures that encourage genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the buying of organs or the offering of a planned death”. The highly active pro-life movements were waiting for nothing more than a word from the Pontiff. And it came as early as his first speech. Leo XIV placed great emphasis on the issue of secularism, an unshakeable tenet of the République: “True secularism does not consist in excluding religion from the public sphere or from education, but in ensuring that the state and religious institutions engage in dialogue and join forces in the service of the common good, so that the world may have life”. Furthermore, the Christian “involved in public life, who acts in the light of his or her conscience enlightened by faith, cannot be regarded as a proselytiser or a threat to the unity of the nation. Indeed, true secularism does not exclude the religious dimension, but rather knows how to draw upon it as an educational resource”. Concluding his address, and to clarify the terms of the matter, the Pope said: “I wish to express to you once again my gratitude for this meeting which, to echo the words spoken by Your Excellency to the bishops of France in 2018, highlights how ‘a Church that claims to take no interest in temporal matters would not be fully fulfilling its vocation; and a President of the Republic who claims to take no interest in the Church and in Catholics would be failing in his duty’.” Macron listened to the papal rebuke nearby, in the Banquet Hall where he met Nicolas Sarkozy once again. The Pope emphasised the role of the Church on several occasions, going so far as to recall that “the soul of your homeland has developed by drawing from Christianity a spiritual, cultural, intellectual, artistic and missionary genius that today shines throughout the world”. 

He emphasised that “the tireless work of the Catholic Church, through the richness of its expressions and institutions, is certainly valuable and commendable for the well-being of society as a whole”. Echoing Ratzinger, he said that “culture and faith stand as the pillars that foster harmony between different peoples and religions in the service of peace and reconciliation amongst people” and “in this sphere too, education presents a particularly important challenge”. He mentioned humanism, “which sought to unify the Greco-Roman heritage and the Christian faith”, the Enlightenment and its achievements, “in particular religious freedom”. He then spoke of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which “aimed to foster a general awareness of the inalienable dignity of the human person”. He quoted Georges Bernanos, who “saw the risk of blind obedience and irresponsibility taking hold in a ‘Paradise of Machines’”, and went on to discuss artificial intelligence and his encyclical, Magnifica humanitas. Leone also addressed peace and war, urging, “I urge you never to resign yourselves to the prospect of war by considering it ‘inevitable’, but to tirelessly promote dialogue and diplomacy, with a view to preserving peaceful societies that respect the dignity and rights of the individual and of peoples”. He returned to this theme in the early afternoon during his visit to UNESCO headquarters. There, reflecting on the words contained in the Preamble to the organisation’s Constitution, written in 1945, he said that at that time “humanity had realised that scientific progress, when separated from wisdom, can become a devastating weapon; that culture, when it bows to ideology, can become lies and propaganda; that education, when it renounces the truth, degrades into an instrument for manipulating consciences. Peace,’ added Leo XIV, ‘cannot be built solely through treaties, nor through compromises between opposing forces. Peace is true when it springs from the virtue of justice rather than from a mere contract, from a righteous will rather than from an unstable balance of interests’. The Pontiff reflected on a paradox: “Whilst intelligence is attributed to computational systems, we struggle to recognise the inalienable dignity of human beings, whose lives are assessed according to the criterion of efficiency and, when deemed no longer productive, are rejected and discarded”. The human being, the Pope went on to say, “is certainly the one who is born, but is also the one who dies. Our dignity is not destroyed by illness or pain, nor does it depend on the achievements of which a person is capable. On the contrary, it requires loving care at every stage of life”.

The most moving moment came when he entered Notre-Dame Cathedral, becoming the first Pope to set foot there since its reconstruction following the fire. Leone arrived after a journey in an open-top car, greeted by a sizeable crowd of the faithful – something not to be taken for granted in the City of Light. In the homily delivered during Vespers, the Pontiff also spoke of the liturgy, one of the most sensitive issues in the daily life of French Catholics. Leone’s appeal was that “liturgical celebrations should always be observed with dignity and decorum, even where smaller communities gather. Be conscious heirs of the Fathers and Saints of the Church who, throughout the centuries, have handed down to us the profound meaning and beauty of the liturgy, always bearing witness to great humility before the Mystery being celebrated. Eucharistic joy is affirmed and spreads where harmony is restored, where dignity is reborn, where authority becomes service, where freedom is set on its path once more. It is the greatest gift we can share. Place, therefore, your communion with the Successor of Peter and with the Church above your personal sensibilities, so as to foster the unity of the People of God. Together, we shall be the prophecy that a reconciled world is possible.”

This evening, a large prayer vigil with young people at the Saint-Denis stadium: the 70,000 tickets sold out in fifteen minutes. Tomorrow, Mass at the Place de la Concorde, followed by the departure for Lourdes. On Monday, the group will travel to Metz, the birthplace of Robert Schuman.