The Pope is in Paris – and No One Seems to Care

From the article by Phillip Pullella www.thestar.com

You can say “Ce m’est egal” which means, “I don’t care”. Or you can say “Ce n’importe pas” which means “It doesn’t matter” or my favorite and which you say whenever someone says “Sorry” –

“C’est pas grave”

The pope was here a few days ago, and no one I know has even mentioned it. Ce n’importe pas. I suppose if we were in Paris, we might have had more long conversations. But like many countries, France is place where fewer and fewer people go to church. Once the “daughter” of Rome, France has a long history of staunch catholicism – remember that whole story about Joan of Arc? (you didn’t get it either, right?….why England owned France…HUH?I know it’s confusing – try this link – www.wikipedia.org).

Nowadays, I don’t know anyone that goes to church, and you can often visit beautiful, majestic cathedrals that are barely half full on Sunday mornings. But I can’t say that people here aren’t “spiritual”…many of the people I’ve met do believe in God, and the presence of religion is “partout” all around.

In Montpellier you’ll find many many choral groups and even a baptist church or two.

The church youth-groups are in full swing here, and I’ve seen many student groups singing songs in the park and gathering for spiritual picnics.

On a bizarre and rather scary note, you’ll also find a lot of young people from Utah and Nevada. They come over for a few months in large groups, learn french in master classes and then spend the remainder of their time standing on corners and talking to young french people, trying to turn them on to the Mormon faith or something…..

I thought I’d escaped the “Holy Rolling” when I left New York, but every morning on my way to the tram, I smile at the old men in their ties and suits handing out “Good News” pamhlets – I smile and run….

For many people here, perhaps it’s not that people have lost Faith in God…it’s that they’ve lost faith in the Catholic Church. I even have a friend from Italy, who says people their are less and less apt to attend mass and are tired of the corruption that has plagued the Vatican both recently and in the past…oh…thousand years or so.

In France, one reason for their disillusion may be that Pope Benedict still refuses to recognize divorce and believes that any union created outside the church is “null and void”. Here in France, they use a different type of civil union called a “Pacte Civil de Solidarite” – which is used by homesexual and hetero-sexual couples alike. It’s far less complicated than a regular marriage license and it offers protection to couples who choose to live together without the exhorbitant costs and rituals associated with regular marriages.

The french government tries to keep up with the times…and The Roman Catholic Church, under Pope Benedict (now 81 years old) isn’t even attempting. Maybe that’s one of the reasons, 700 people gathered along with la Fédération anarchiste to offer up a good old french “manifestation” aka PROTEST which the media ignored.

For that original article – go to the UK’s http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/499266

For the protest, try –

Les anarchistes défilent contre le pape Benoît XVI (Paris)
envoyé par vigilance-laique