The Prime Minister is also expected on Monday at Palazzo Chigi by the prime minister and former head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi.
Le Monde with AFP
The visit of Prime Minister falls in the middle of a storm for the Church of France. Jean Castex is received, Monday, October 18 in the morning in Rome by Pope Francis in a heated environment for the Church of France, faced with startling revelations about sexual abuse and controversy around the “seal of confession”.
The visit of Mr. Castex, long planned to celebrate the centenary of the restoration of diplomatic relations between France and the Holy See, is upset by the news after the publication on October 5, the findings of the independent Commission on sexual abuse in the Church (CIASE), chaired by the senior official Jean-Marc Sauvé.
If the Prime Minister, received in private audience by the Pope, should, according to his entourage, discuss several topics on which France and Vatican converge (access to vaccines for all, climate change, Lebanon …), you can not hide the magnitude of the figures in the report: 216,000 children abused by a priest or religious in France since the 1950s, 330,000 counting the attackers lay linked to the institutions of the Church
a. priorities of his pontificate
Especially as since his election in 2013, the Pope has made the fight against sexual abuse – “instrument of Satan” – a priority of his pontificate. François has also already expressed his “shame” and “pain” following the report Sauvé and Mr. Castex ensure it will follow “very closely the decisions that will take the bishops in the coming weeks,” according to his advisers.
But the debate is also tied around the seal of confession, the president of the Bishops’ Conference of France (CEF), Emmanuel de Moulins-Beaufort, were deemed “superior to the laws of the Republic”, before of back-pedal and to evoke a “clumsy formulation”.
On this point, Mr Castex, who will meet in the morning in Rome several dignitaries of the Holy See and representatives of the French ecclesiastical community, should limit the debate to national borders, recalling that “the interlocutor Government is the Church in France. “
“The stone is primarily in the garden of bishops” of France, who will “tell how articulate child protection and secrecy of confession, which in French law is a privilege, neither more nor less “emphasize the services of the Prime Minister.
One way not to offend the Vatican itself walking on eggshells: on one side, a crime report form was made available to all ecclesiastical in July 2020; on the other, the Holy See has confirmed the primacy of the seal of confession, the confessor is simply encouraged to “try to convince the penitent” to alert people able, them to go to court.
Capacity external borders
In the afternoon, Mr Castex, accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and the interior minister, Gerald Darmanin be expected at Palazzo Chigi by the head of government and former head of the European Central Bank, Mario Draghi.
The opportunity to further embody the warming of relations between France and Italy, marked by tension episodes, including on migration when the far-right leader Matteo Salvini was interior minister.
The subject is obviously invite back to the discussion table while France will exercise, from 1 st January, the rotating presidency of the European Union. In this context, Paris intends to strengthen the external borders of Europe one of its priorities, in particular by establishing secure registration camps main entrance doors on the continent, including Italy.
The challenge is to bring Rome to set up this filtering, which will determine a “policy of solidarity” that is to say, the allocation of funds, subject of tough negotiations in Brussels last year.
Finally, Messrs. Castex and Draghi should affirm their commitment to the success quickly, perhaps by the end of the year, the draft treaty Quirinale, initiated in 2017 and is intended to provide “a more stable and ambitious framework” the Franco-Italian cooperation on the model of the Elysée treaty between France and Germany.