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Pope Meets With Macron in Marseille Ahead of Giant Mass In Marseille, Francis Urges Europe to Heed the Plight of Migrants
(about 8 hours later)
Pope Francis met with President Emmanuel Macron of France on Saturday on the second day of a whirlwind trip to Marseille, a port city in the country’s south where the pontiff reiterated his forceful condemnation of the world’s indifference toward the deaths of migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean to Europe. Tens of thousands of faithful were drawn on Saturday to a soccer stadium in the south of France, not for a match, but for a Mass presided over by Pope Francis, who was on the second day of a whirlwind trip to the port city of Marseille.
Thousands of police officers blanketed the city on Saturday and blocked traffic around the Palais du Pharo, a 19th-century palace overlooking the city’s old port where Mr. Macron and his wife, Brigitte, greeted Francis on a windy morning. As he was driven to the stadium, Marseille’s famed Vélodrome, Francis waved from the popemobile to the crowds thronging a sunny avenue. French church authorities estimated the crowds in the stadium at 57,00 people. And when he arrived onstage, he greeted those in attendance: “Bonjour Marseille, Bonjour la France!” he said to loud cheers before leading a prayer in French.
They shook hands and smiled, and the 86-year-old pontiff, who often uses a wheelchair, briefly walked instead, holding onto Mr. Macron’s arm. “It gives us a great feeling of joy,” Jean-Fernand Leyouka mi Bambiri, 47, a hospital security guard in Marseille, said of the pope’s visit.
The pope’s trip is not an official state visit. Mr. Macron and Francis attended the closing session of the Mediterranean Meetings, a weeklong gathering of bishops and other representatives. They then met one on one for half an hour, ahead of a giant Mass later in the afternoon at Marseille’s soccer stadium. At a meeting earlier Saturday, the pope, who has focused much of his two-trip on the plight of migrants looking for a better life in Europe by crossing the Mediterranean, condemned the world’s indifference to the deaths of many of those who try to make that treacherous journey. Over 2,300 migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean from North and sub-Saharan Africa to reach Europe have been recorded dead or missing so far this year, according to the International Organization for Migration, a United Nations agency.
The Rev. Vito Impellizzeri, a professor at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Sicily, who attended the gathering, said the pope was coming to help shift perceptions of the Mediterranean. The Mediterranean, Francis said, was transforming from “the cradle of civilization” into a “graveyard of dignity.”
Mr. Leyouka mi Bambiri, who attended the Mass with his wife and teenage son, said the pope’s urgent speeches on migration, in Marseille and elsewhere, resonated. “Many don’t want to talk about those issues,” he said near the stadium afterward as the crowd spilled out. “But it’s important for us as Christians — you have to help others.”
While the pope’s trip was not an official state visit, Francis did meet with President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday at the Palais du Pharo, a 19th-century palace overlooking Marseille’s old port. There, the two leaders attended the closing session of the Mediterranean Meetings, a weeklong gathering of bishops and other representatives, and then met privately for half an hour — their fourth one-on-one meeting since Mr. Macron was first elected in 2017.
The Rev. Vito Impellizzeri, a professor at the Pontifical Theological Faculty of Sicily, who also attended the gathering, said the pope wanted to shift perceptions of the Mediterranean.
“It should not simply be the tomb and clash of civilizations,” he said, but also “a space of reciprocity and encounters.”“It should not simply be the tomb and clash of civilizations,” he said, but also “a space of reciprocity and encounters.”
The pope has focused much of his trip so far on the plight of migrants attempting the dangerous Mediterranean crossing from North and sub-Saharan Africa to Europe. Francis also met on Saturday with members of SOS Méditérannée, an aid group that rescues shipwrecked migrants, who offered him a life vest used to rescue babies.
In a speech on Saturday, he said the Mediterranean was transforming from “the cradle of civilization” into a “graveyard of dignity.” People “have the right both to emigrate and not to emigrate,” he said, but all should be afforded compassion. “The unfathomable death toll in the Mediterranean this year could have been prevented if the political will was there,” Sophie Beau, a founder of the group, said at a news conference this past week.
“Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome,” the pope said, calling migration “a reality of our times” that European governments needed to handle with greater cooperation, more legal routes to entry, and better integration. “Those who risk their lives at sea do not invade, they look for welcome,” Francis said on Saturday, calling migration “a reality of our times” that European governments needed to handle with greater cooperation, more legal routes to entry, and better integration.
“Here also the Mediterranean mirrors the world, with the South turning to the North,” he said, adding that many developing countries plagued by instability, conflict and desertification were “looking to those that are well-off, in a globalized world in which we are all connected, but one in which the disparities have never been so wide.” “Here, also, the Mediterranean mirrors the world, with the South turning to the North,” he said, adding that many developing countries plagued by instability, conflict and desertification were “looking to those that are well-off, in a globalized world in which we are all connected, but one in which the disparities have never been so wide.”
At the Vélodrome, hundreds of faithful hoisted giant banners representing the pope and Notre-Dame de la Garde, the basilica that overlooks the city. Devotion to the local soccer team is a faith of its own in Marseille, and Mr. Macron, while not from the city, is also a supporter.
“By coming here, it is as though you had gone into the home of each Marseillais,” Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille, told the pope at the end of the Mass, as the stadium roared in approval.
Francis has long preferred traveling to the world’s fringes rather than its power centers. Cardinal Aveline said in an interview this past week with the daily Le Parisien that Francis had told him, “If I go to Paris, I will see protocol; in Marseille, I will see the people.” And in Marseille, he met privately early Saturday with people “in a situation of economic hardship” at a charity house, according to the Vatican.
Marseille, a gritty, sprawling city of about 870,000, is France’s second largest. It is plagued by pockets of extreme poverty, strained social services and deadly drug-related violence. But it is also one of France’s oldest and most cosmopolitan cities, a predominantly working-class patchwork of ethnic and religious communities that has been shaped by waves of immigration from Europe and Africa.
Mr. Macron’s office said the president and Francis had a free-ranging discussion, mostly on international issues like the environment, the war in Ukraine and the conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan over Nagorno-Karabakh.
Mr. Macron is a disrupter of French politics who has long been fascinated by Francis’ willingness to shake things up in the church, but he does not see eye to eye with the pope on a number of issues.Mr. Macron is a disrupter of French politics who has long been fascinated by Francis’ willingness to shake things up in the church, but he does not see eye to eye with the pope on a number of issues.
His government has hardened its stance on the issue of migrants as it seeks support from the right on an upcoming immigration bill, and it is expected to unveil legislation on assisted dying this fall — a policy that the Roman Catholic Church rejects. In his speech, Francis criticized “the false pretenses of a supposedly dignified and ‘sweet’ death.’”His government has hardened its stance on the issue of migrants as it seeks support from the right on an upcoming immigration bill, and it is expected to unveil legislation on assisted dying this fall — a policy that the Roman Catholic Church rejects. In his speech, Francis criticized “the false pretenses of a supposedly dignified and ‘sweet’ death.’”
Tens of thousands are expected to line the streets later in the day as Francis is driven to the Vélodrome, the soccer stadium in Marseille, where devotion to the local team is a faith of its own. The last papal visit to Marseille was in 1533, when Pope Clement VII married his niece Catherine de Medici to the future King Henry II of France.
Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the archbishop of Marseille, who helped orchestrate the pope’s trip, said in an interview with the daily Le Parisien this week that Francis had told him, “If I go to Paris, I will see protocol; in Marseille, I will see the people.” Roman Catholicism has dwindled significantly in power and influence in France since then, even though it is still the main religion in the country, representing about 29 percent of the population.
“That’s why we chose the Vélodrome,” Cardinal Aveline said. “At the stadium, it’s like going into the home of each Marseillais.” Today, half of French adults 18 to 59 say they have no religion at all, according to official statistics, and the concept of laïcité — a nondiscriminatory society where the state upholds strict religious neutrality — is widely approved.
He added, “Marseille attracts him because it’s a periphery, between Europe and the Mediterranean, Orient and Occident, and in particular because it is a place of fracture.” That led some, especially on the left, to criticize Mr. Macron’s decision to attend the Mass in Marseille, even though he stressed that he was there only “out of courtesy and respect,” not to participate.
Francis has long preferred traveling to the world’s fringes rather than its power centers. In Marseille, he met privately early Saturday with people “in a situation of economic hardship” at a charity house, according to the Vatican. But in Marseille, Francis, not Mr. Macron, was the main attraction.
Marseille, a gritty, sprawling city of about 870,000, is plagued by pockets of extreme poverty, strained social services and deadly drug-related violence. But it is also one of France’s oldest and most cosmopolitan cities, a predominantly working-class patchwork of ethnic and religious communities that has been shaped by waves of immigration from Europe and Africa.
“It’s a city that suits the pope,” said Isabelle de Gaulmyn, a top editor at La Croix, France’s leading Catholic newspaper.
Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Rome.Elisabetta Povoledo contributed reporting from Rome.