Pope Francis sets sail on 15 December for Corsica; an island that could be considered an “oasis” for Catholics in France. They make up 92 per cent of the population.
In the Diocese of Ajaccio, the capital, there are more than 430 parishes.
These figures are very different from the rest of the country, where secularisation is booming. Now, more than half of the French say they have no religion and only 8 per cent go to Mass.
“If we look at France, on the continent, the situation is different. In France, there is less practice and perhaps there is more indifference, even ideological hostility,” said Cardinal Francois-Xavier, bishop of Ajaccio (France).
“On the island of Corsica, because it is an island, it is a place where the Catholic religion and the Corsican language have given an identity to that people.”
The pope made the bishop of Ajaccio a cardinal in 2023; a gesture of inclination towards more pastoral and less political profiles. It was the cardinal who invited Pope Francis to go to Corsica.
The reason for the trip is to close a meeting on “popular religiosity in the Mediterranean,” where there are many brotherhoods.
“They are intermediary bodies in society, which are very useful. Between the grassroots and the ecclesiastical or civil authority, these intermediary bodies—the brotherhoods—have a very important weight,” the cardinal said.
“So, I live in a context that is quite favourable and that must be evangelised.”
Pope Francis will make a whirlwind trip of only eleven hours, where he will deliver three speeches. He will also meet Emmanuel Macron at the airport before returning to Rome.
The French president had invited the pope to travel to Paris for the reopening of Notre Dame on 8 December, but the pontiff decided to decline the request.
This will be his third time in France, although it is not considered a state visit. The previous ones were not either. He was in Marseille in 2023 and in Strasbourg in 2014, where he gave speeches at the European Parliament and the Council of Europe.
Pope Francis is traveling two days shy of his 88th birthday. Beyond his mobility problems, the pope does not show any worrying signs. In fact, in 2024, he has made two international trips in which he visited six countries, in addition to three one-day visits within Italy.
Corsica will be his last destination of the year, just a few days before the start of what will be one of the great challenges on his agenda and one of the big bets of his pontificate: the Jubilee of 2025.
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