Lourdes - The spring plenary assembly of the French Bishops’ Conference is taking place in Lourdes over these days, an occasion on which the French episcopate is called to address some of the most delicate issues in the ecclesial and social life of the country: Catholic education, the fight against abuse, the path of reparation, the liturgy, the international situation, and the role of the Church in a society marked by increasingly evident tensions.
The expectations of Leo XIV
Against this backdrop, the French bishops have received a letter from Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Secretary of State, sent in the name of Pope Leo XIV. This is not a routine message or a simple expression of good wishes for the success of the assembly, but a text in which the themes to which the Pontiff is paying particular attention emerge clearly. In this sense, the letter takes on the character of a precise indication of the Pope’s expectations of the French episcopate gathered in Lourdes. Cardinal Pietro Parolin opens the message by conveying the Pope’s “best wishes” to the French bishops for the “good and fruitful conduct” of their work and assuring them of his “fraternal prayer”. The Pope expresses the hope that the assembly will be a renewed opportunity to strengthen the bonds of fraternal charity and to seek together the will of God for the Church in France. In this way, the Pontiff calls the episcopate to read these problems not merely as organisational or disciplinary matters, but as issues that touch upon pastoral governance and the Church’s witness in a complex time.
The first theme underlined in the letter is that of education. Parolin says that Leo XIV has taken note of the matters the bishops intend to address and that the educational question, in particular, has drawn his attention. The reference is to the Apostolic Letter Drawing New Maps of Hope and to the need to face the future of Catholic education in a context described as marked by growing hostility towards Catholic institutions and by challenges to their proper identity. Here the Pope encourages the bishops to defend firmly the Christian dimension of Catholic education, observing that without reference to Jesus Christ it would lose its very reason for being. It is a weighty passage, because it touches on one of the most sensitive issues in contemporary France: the relationship between the Catholic school, the public sphere, and ecclesial identity. The second axis of the letter concerns the fight against the abuse of minors and the process of reparation that the Church in France has initiated in recent years. Parolin writes that there must be long-term perseverance in the preventive measures already undertaken, and that the Church’s attention towards victims must continue to be shown. At the same time, he recalls the mercy of God “towards all”, adding that even priests guilty of abuse must not be excluded from this mercy and must remain within the bishops’ pastoral reflection.
It is a delicate passage, which part of the press is already using instrumentally in order to expose the Pope to public vilification. In reality, the meaning of the Holy See’s words is quite different and lies fully within the teaching of the Gospel. The Church cannot renounce justice, nor diminish the gravity of the facts, but neither can she lose sight of what the Lord Jesus has entrusted to her: the possibility of conversion, the call to penance, the duty not to reduce anyone to his sin. In a cultural climate that increasingly seems inclined towards a summary form of justice, more interested in the public elimination of persons than in their responsibility and real change, the Holy See calls for justice, reparation, responsibility and conversion to be held together.
It is on this difficult yet properly Christian balance that the seriousness of the Church’s response is measured.
In the same part of the letter, another important element emerges: after years of painful crises, the Pope invites the bishops to turn resolutely towards the future and to address to the priests of France, “severely tried”, a message of encouragement and confidence. There is not only the awareness of a Church marked by scandals and mistrust. There is also attention to a clergy which, in France, is living through a difficult season, amid secularisation, media pressure, declining numbers, and pastoral fatigue.
The liturgical question
The third major theme recalled by the Secretary of State is that of the liturgy. Parolin notes that the Pope is paying close attention to the delicate liturgical question, in the context of the growth of communities attached to the Vetus Ordo. The cardinal speaks of a “painful wound” which continues to open within the Church around the celebration of Holy Mass, defined as “the very sacrament of unity”. For this reason, the Holy Father calls for a renewed mutual regard, a deeper understanding of differing sensitivities, and concrete solutions capable of generously including the faithful who are sincerely attached to the Vetus Ordo, while respecting the orientations desired by the Second Vatican Council in liturgical matters. It is an approach that holds together the demand for ecclesial unity, the reception of the Council, and the need not to treat the issue as a simple dispute between opposing camps. The letter concludes with an affectionate reference to France as the “eldest daughter of the Church”. The Pope assures his prayer for all French Catholics and for their clergy, asking that they persevere in the faith and in the courageous proclamation of the Gospel in difficult times, though not times devoid of signs of hope.
The plenary assembly: the issues under discussion
The context in which this letter was received was defined by the opening address delivered by Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille and President of the French Bishops’ Conference. His intervention provided the spiritual, pastoral and also political framework of the plenary assembly in Lourdes. Aveline welcomed his brother bishops by recalling the significance of the place and of the liturgical season, on the eve of the solemnity of the Annunciation, and developed an intense meditation on Mary, the Incarnation and the Eucharist. Yet this was not an abstract introduction. Those images - the manger, the paten, the vulnerability of the Christ who is received - served the cardinal in defining the face of the Church he proposes to the episcopate: a Church that remains present, that shares, that does not withdraw from the fragility of history. Within this framework comes the strong reference to the Church in Algeria, to the martyrs of Tibhirine, and to the figure of Christian de Chergé. Aveline insisted on the verb cum-stare, to stand with, to remain with, to persevere with. This, in his reading, is the posture required of the French bishops: not that of those who observe from outside, but that of those who inhabit the wounds of their people, in fidelity and in prayer. Aveline then took up directly the major issues recalled in Parolin’s letter. He spoke of education as indispensable foundational work and linked the Church’s reflection to the French context, marked by cultural tensions and growing violence in public debate. He referred to the recent municipal elections, to media and social polarisation, and to the need to create the conditions for a genuine debate and to support those who, in local government, carry out their service with difficulty and responsibility.
He then addressed at length the question of sexual violence and abuse, explaining that the Conference intends to continue the work already begun, moving beyond a purely emergency logic in order to develop stable instruments capable of accompanying victims and making the Church’s response more structural. In this same framework he situated the reflection on justice and mercy, showing that the problem cannot be addressed only in procedural terms, but requires a deeper pastoral maturation.
Lastly, the President of the French bishops also situated the liturgical question within a broader reflection on tradition, on listening to the spiritual thirst of the faithful, and on the need to safeguard ecclesial communion in union with the Second Vatican Council. In effect, his address showed that the plenary assembly in Lourdes is not simply an administrative meeting, but a moment in which the French episcopate is trying to read its mission together amid very concrete tensions: the educational crisis, abuse, the liturgical fracture, the erosion of public debate, the war in the Middle East, and the suffering of peoples struck by violence. It was precisely the passage devoted to the international situation that gave further depth to Aveline’s address. The cardinal spoke of the deterioration of the global situation, of the war in the Middle East, and of the sufferings of Israelis, Iranians, Lebanese, Palestinians, Ukrainians, and other peoples affected by conflict. He referred to the letters sent to Christian leaders in the region and insisted that God cannot be enlisted by the powers of darkness, because He is always on the side of the victims. Here too the meaning of the plenary assembly becomes clear: a Church called to discuss internal questions without closing in on itself, while keeping its gaze open to the world and to its wounds.
The Lourdes assembly therefore presents itself as a significant moment for the French episcopate. On the one hand, the Holy See’s attention to its work emerges clearly. On the other, one can see the bishops’ attempt to place the major ecclesial dossiers within a broader reading of French and international reality. On the table there are not only questions of governance. There is the way in which the Church in France intends to safeguard its identity, confront its wounds, accompany the faithful, and continue to speak to the country in a season marked by deep crises.
Fr. J.M.
Silere non possum