France

Second Vatican Council: 2.500 in Lourdes for the 50th"The Second Vatican Council has been and remains a true sign of God for our time". This declared Benedict XVI in the video message that opened the national meeting of the French Church on March 24 in Lourdes, marking the 50th anniversary of the Council. The two-day meeting brought together 2.500 people in the shrine of Lourdes, with the participation of members of other Christian Churches. "If we interpret it within the tradition of the Church and under the reliable guidance of the Magisterium" – underlined Benedict XVI – it will be, increasingly, a great force for the future of the Church". "I hope that this anniversary will be an occasion for spiritual and pastoral renewal. This demands an ever greater openness to Christ and, in particular, rediscovering the taste for the word of God, in order to achieve a profound conversion of our heart and to walk the highways of the world to proclaim the Gospel of hope to the men and women of our time, in a respectful dialogue with all. May this time of grace also permit us to strengthen communion within the great family which is the Catholic Church and to contribute to restoring unity among all Christians, which was one of the Council’s main objectives", His Holiness concluded. In a message to participants the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I wrote that the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council is an occasion "to delve into the fruits of a council experience that extends far beyond the borders of the Roman Catholic Church". He added: "The papal dogmas required a Council interpretation" and "from the viewpoint of the Orthodox Church, the prevailing conditions in the dialogue with our Churches are grounded in the reintroduction of the principle of conciliarity". "We must all be encouraged – said the president of the Protestant Federation of France, pastor Claude Baty – to render the spirit of Vatican II ever more vibrant" since "with the Council, the Catholic Church engaged in a dialogue with the Christians of the different confessions". Now, "we mustn’t motionlessly repose on our achievements. We must continue following our path. Today’s ecumenical movement needs to recover momentum". In his closing remarks, Cardinal Roger Etchegaray shared his personal reflections. He said: "The Council isn’t a haven to rest and neglect our journey. It’s a new beginning. Let us not miss the time of the Council".Bishops’ Assembly: appeal to social peace"The act of a fanatic can trigger social violence. We all want to prevent this violence against the various religious communities of our Country from spreading". An appeal to social peace was launched on March 26 by the president of French Bishops Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, who opened the plenary Assembly of the French Bishops’ Conference in Lourdes. In the prolusion, the Archbishop of Paris referred to "the tragic events of Tolouse and Montauban that have upset our Country". "We wish – he said – to convey to the families who are mourning their dear ones and to the entire Jewish community of France our closeness and sympathy with which we share their own grief. I seize the occasion of this assembly to say that they are assured in the prayers of our Catholic communities". Cardinal Vingt-Trois then addressed the issue of the electoral campaign for the upcoming presidential elections: what most worries the Catholic Church in France in this period is the "scepticism" with which electors look at "political action, at politicians in general and at candidates in particular"; "it would be a defeat of democracy if electors gave up voting because they question the solutions presented". The crisis, added archbishop Vingt-Trois, is "deep" and "serious" and it requires measures that are "commensurate with" the solution. In the prolusion, the archbishop invited to lower the tones of pre-electoral debates. "When public debate becomes an encouragement to hate the other candidates and disrespect other people it jeopardizes the future in alarming ways". Moreover, he said, "in an electoral campaign in which the results will be necessarily drawn close, it is inappropriate that opposing stances demonize one another" since "behind candidates that attack each other there are electors that represent an relevant part of the population, that cannot be rejected". The Archbishop thus invited the faithful to vote for "trustworthy" candidates.