A mass with very political overtones. As every year, on the occasion of the return to parliament, the Catholic Church organizes in the Sainte-Clotilde basilica (Paris 7th) an office for deputies and senators. It is the new archbishop of Paris, Laurent Ulrich, who will animate this Tuesday evening this “mass of parliamentarians”, a few steps from the National Assembly, in front of certain elected officials. This ceremony, mixing religion and politics, could surprise in a country marked by the separation of Church and State more than a century ago. What is the objective ? 20 minutes make the point.
What is this mass?
In 1992, Cardinal Lustiger, Archbishop of Paris, created the Pastoral Service for Political Studies (SPEP), a structure whose mission is to dialogue with the political world. Each year, it organizes this “parliamentary mass”, which allows the Church to deliver messages to elected officials.
On his sitethe diocese of Paris specifies that the “homilies are an opportunity to express the reflection of the Church on the ethical issues of the foreseeable political debates of the coming year”.
Very political messages?
Last year, the former Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Michel Aupetit, evoked the life of Jesus or “surveillance capitalism”, sometimes offering thinly veiled advice to the parliamentarians present. “The real danger is no longer being at the foot of people, but overhanging”. Some years, the message is more pressing. In 2012, the sermon strongly reaffirmed the Church’s opposition to the law on marriage for all, a promise made by the new President of the Republic, François Hollande.
In 2019, the Archbishop warns against the consequences of the bioethics law, voted a few hours earlier in the Assembly. “We have science, may we have wisdom!” “, He said in particular in front of Gilles Le Gendre, then president of the LREM group.
This year, the sermon could focus on another social project: medical support for the end of life, while a citizens’ convention wanted by Emmanuel Macron will begin its work in December.
Why do politicians go there?
Philippe Gosselin, deputy Les Républicains de la Manche, went to this mass of parliamentarians on several occasions. “I go there first of all out of conviction, but also to share a common time, certainly particular, with fellow deputies and senators who come from diverse backgrounds, moreover more than one imagines”, assures this Catholic practicing. “There is nothing abnormal in the fact that the Church, and beyond the institution, the believers, can express their points of view. This also applies to Jews and Muslims. The great currents of thought, the unions, the political parties could, why not them? “, he asks.
Is this contrary to the law of 1905?
The rebellious MP Sarah Legrain denounced on Twitter in September the invitation sent by the diocese of Paris to parliamentarians. “Unfortunately I will not come to this Mass, because in my opinion, in a secular Republic, parliamentarians do not need to be blessed by an archbishop. And the Church does not need to waste time worrying about what parliamentarians are doing, since there is a separation of Church and State”.
A charge swept aside by Philippe Gosselin, who recalls that the deputies go there in a private capacity. “By going to Sainte-Clotilde, no one is going to look for orders! I am one of those who think that religions still have things to say to society. This is part of the democratic debate. Everyone is then free to listen or not”.