Meeting with Emmanuel Macron, crowd baths, “peace to the whole world”, what to remember from the Pope's visit to Corsica

While Pope Francis had decided to go to Corsica in Ajaccio rather than during the reopening ceremony of Notre-Dame on December 7. For the occasion, it was Emmanuel Macron who came to meet him on the Isle of Beauty at the end of a significant day for the Corsicans.

Visiting the Isle of Beauty this Sunday, December 15, Pope Francis came to France for the third time since the beginning of his pontificate. The first time in Strasbourg in 2014 and at the Stade Vélodrome in Marseille in 2023. Welcomed by the resigning Minister of the Interior Bruno Retailleau, the Pope landed in Corsica around 9 a.m.

He was then invited to a conference on “Popular religiosity in the Mediterranean” where he was welcomed by the Bishop of Ajaccio. “A big thank you for your presence in Ajaccio in Corsica, you are welcome, you cannot imagine the excitement”, declared the Bishop of Ajaccio.

“Happy” to be in Corsica, the Pope pleaded for a “healthy secularism that is not static and fixed” and “not to oppose Christian and secular cultures”. He was also able to enjoy crowd baths with the Corsicans and bless passers-by, including a 108-year-old lady.

An open-air mass

He was then expected for an open-air mass to the tune of Corsican songs with the arrival of Patrick Fiori and Alizée in particular. A mass where he took the opportunity to discuss the conflicts surrounding the world today. Pope Francis then launched an appeal for “peace” for “the entire Middle East” but also “for the Ukrainian people and the Russian people“.

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“Peace for Palestine, for Israel, for Lebanon, for Syria, for the entire Middle East”, he pleaded, assuring that “war is always a defeat”. “Peace to the whole world”, he concluded.

Before his departure, the Pope met with President Emmanuel Macron at Ajaccio airport, an AFP journalist noted. The meeting began around 6 p.m. in an airport lounge before the Pope took off, as he had not traveled to Paris the previous weekend for the reopening of Notre-Dame, despite the invitation extended to him by the French head of state.

Promise of action for Mayotte

“I want to have a thought for our compatriots in Mayotte who have suffered the most terrible things in recent hours and who, for some, have lost everything, have lost their lives”, the French president said. He wished to have “this thought for them by being with (Pope Francis) today” and promised “to act” for this department, the poorest in France, hit by a cyclone which according to the prefect “certainly caused several hundred deaths”.

According to BFMTV, the President also thanked the Pope for having spoken about the disaster during his speech earlier in the day.

Gifts from the President to the Pope François

The President also offered the sovereign pontiff two works. One being the official book of the reconstruction of Notre-Dame, 5 years after the fire, Rebuilding Notre-Dame de Paris. The second is an old edition of Charles Péguy's work, Presentation de la Beauce à Notre-Dame de Chartres. Charles Péguy, an author who lived between 1873 and 1914, was a fervent believer.