François will soon have the word Corsica at the top of his agenda. On Sunday, the President of the French Bishops’ Conference (CEF) referred to the as yet unofficial visit of the pope mid-December on the Isle of Beauty.
“The announcement has not yet been made, it depends on the Holy See to make it completely official”, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort reminded us at a press conference in Lourdes, adding that “if the Pope decides to come to Corsica on December 15, that’s fine”.
Pope expected in Ajaccio
Sources close to the matter had indicated on Thursday that the Pope wished to visit Corsica, and that diplomatic contacts were underway between the Corsican government and the Pope. Vatican and the Elysée Palace about a planned visit in mid-December. In his closing address to the CEF plenary assembly, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort had already mentioned this possible visit: “If it turns out that Pope Francis will come to Ajaccio the week after” the reopening of Notre-Dame on December 8, “as rumor has it, we’ll receive one more boost”.
Asked about the Pope’s absence from Paris on December 8, Eric de Moulins-Beaufort recalled that “there was never really any question of the Pope coming to the opening of Notre-Dame de Paris”. And this “for a very simple reason: the star of the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris is Notre-Dame de Paris, not the Pope’s visit to France”. “The Pope never had any intention of coming… […] to look the other way on this occasion,” he added.
A pope committed “to the Mediterranean
The president of the CEF also emphasized “his (the pope’s) commitment to the Mediterranean, which has a symbolic value but is also very effective as a figure for the challenges of our world”.
For his part, Limoges bishop Pierre-Antoine Bozo explained that “the occasion of the Pope’s visit to Corsica would not be Corsica for its own sake, but a colloquium on popular religiosity through the devotions of brotherhoods”. “It’s a theme close to his heart, and one he often talks about. The issue is not so much Corsica and France as popular devotion, about which he feels he may still have something to say,” he added at the press conference.