POPE MARSEILLES. Pope Francis will be visiting Marseille in September. A mass is planned at the Velodrome. What do we know about his program?
The “Our Father” recited between a Marseillaise and a Tongan war dance, in an enclosure where the “To arms!” usually resounds. Pope Francis will come to France in a few weeks. It is precisely in Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône) that the sovereign pontiff will go, as revealed by La Provence this Friday, June 2, 2023. The Marseille city will welcome François at the end of September, in the middle of the Rugby World Cup. A few days after the passage of the French rugby team, it is indeed at the Vélodrome stadium that the head of the Catholic Church will give a mass in front of, probably, tens of thousands of faithful.
“I will go to Marseille, not to France”
The Pope’s program is still not definitively recorded. However, it is already planned that he will participate in the Mediterranean Meetings, at the Pharo, in the company of various Catholic bishops. A prayer in memory of sailors and migrants who died at sea at the foot of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde is also on the agenda. Just like a meeting with the public, even if the place has not yet been defined. The high point of the papal visit will be the mass celebrated in the mythical enclosure of the Olympique de Marseille. This is scheduled for Saturday, September 23, at 4:45 p.m. The exact gauge has yet to be defined.
This visit by Pope Francis to Marseille is not an official visit to France. He himself said it: “I will go to Marseille, not to France.” It is indeed within the framework of the gathering of bishops, who have come from all over Europe, that the sovereign pontiff will move and speak. His last visit to France dates back to November 25, 2014, in Strasbourg, on the occasion of a speech delivered before the European Parliament and then the Council of Europe. The last official visit of a pope to France dates back to the visit of Benedict XVI to Paris and Lourdes from September 12 to 15, 2008.