Hos Rorate Cæli leste jeg nylig denne interessante reportasjen om pavens besøk i Frankrike:
Pope Leo XIV has just concluded his apostolic journey to the eldest daughter of the Church. It has instantly become a clear and self-evident success for all to see. The secular Macron had hoped to accompany Leo and was turned down; enormous crowds turned out; young and old were united in a new passion for the faith. A country that has had aggressive secularism as state dogma for over a century — and that is currently confronting the problems of imported radical Islam — suddenly looked as devout as Ireland half a century ago.Pope Leo actively sought to make this visit about the promotion of the faith rather than partisan politics, and in this he succeeded. Yet he clearly chose also to convey the Church’s moral teachings in a country where left and right have been defined since 1789 precisely by their rejection or defense of those teachings. Ethical debates and attacks on the Church are increasingly prominent in the controversies building toward France’s elections next year. Indirect political implications were therefore unavoidable.Pope Leo’s visit to France continues a pattern he established in Monaco and Spain: traveling to a historically Catholic nation that has recently legalized — or is at risk of legalizing — abortion or euthanasia, in order to proclaim a clear pro-life message. But in no previous apostolic journey was that message as dominant as it was in France. … …