“I will go to Marseille, not to France. At 86, Pope Francis is still doing some mental gymnastics. Reaffirming this detail, which had caused misunderstanding among some French Catholics, the sovereign pontiff explained that his trip to Marseille did not constitute a state visit. “I went to Strasbourg, I will go to Marseille, but not to France”, repeated the Argentinian Jesuit during a press conference on the plane bringing him back from WYD in Lisbon, while excluding having a “problem” with France.
“The problem that worries me is the Mediterranean problem, that’s why I’m going to France. The exploitation of migrants is criminal,” insisted the 86-year-old pope, who has made the migration issue a cornerstone of his pontificate. The diocese of Marseille is organizing meetings from September 18 to 24 on themes such as economic inequalities, migration and climate change, to which the pope is invited to meet the bishops and young people. He must celebrate a mass open to the public, after a prayer in memory of the migrants who disappeared at sea.
Small countries first
“In the Mediterranean, the bishops are having this meeting to reflect on the drama of migrants,” said the pope. “The Mediterranean is a cemetery. But it is not the largest: the largest cemetery is in northern Africa. It’s awful. That’s why I’m going to Marseille, ”he justified. “Last week, President Macron told me of his intention to come,” added the Pope, who will meet with the President of the Republic on September 23 in the afternoon, before celebrating Mass at the Vélodrome stadium. .
Asked if he had “something against France,” the pope replied, “No! “On that, it’s a policy. I visit the small European countries, the big ones (Spain, France, England…) I leave them for later, for the end. I want to start with the small ones,” he said.
Since his election in 2013, Jorge Bergoglio has made 42 trips abroad and visited some sixty countries, giving priority to the “peripheries”. Despite increasingly fragile health forcing him to use a wheelchair, he continues to travel and will go to Mongolia at the beginning of September. In recent interviews, the pope also mentioned plans for trips to Argentina and Kosovo, without specifying the dates.