The Pope denounces the French assimilation mannequin, because “it causes ghettos, hostility and intolerance” | EUROtoday

The Supreme Pontiff, who met this morning with President Emmanuel Macron, remembers that immigrants “do not invade”

Pope Francis launched this Saturday a extreme criticism of France on his second day of visiting the metropolis of Marseille. If yesterday he gave a speech with a message in favor of immigration and invited Europe to welcome unlawful immigrants who cross the Mediterranean and combine them, this Saturday he has put it much more finely. The Supreme Pontiff has criticized the assimilation mannequin that France follows with immigrants, contemplating that “it does not take into account the differences, is rigid in its paradigmsmakes the idea prevail over reality” and additionally “compromises the future, increasing distances, causing ghettos, hostility and intolerance.”

He mentioned it just some minutes after being obtained by the president, Emmanuel Macron, and shortly earlier than assembly with him. In only one sentence, by which he has not explicitly cited France however which has been forceful, the Supreme Pontiff has delivered to mild the cracks in the nation’s integration mannequin, the place, for instance, spiritual indicators are prohibited in faculties. The similar one the place residents of immigrant origin (the majority French born in the nation however whose mother and father or grandparents emigrated from the former French colonies) have been grouped for many years in the peripheral neighborhoods of the cities, the so-called suburb. The ghettos to which the Pope referred.

France considers that individuals who arrive from overseas should adapt to the legal guidelines of the nation that welcomes them. Furthermore, the worth of secularism prevails, which defends that faith mustn’t intrude in the functioning of society. For this cause, spiritual indicators are usually not allowed in faculties, for instance. It is a scheme reverse to that of the United Kingdom, which follows an integration mannequin the place hyperlinks with international locations of origin are allowed. Muslim college students can put on a veil to lessons.

The Pope’s phrases come when France is in the center of the debate on secularism and its limits, particularly after the French Government has banned the abaya, the typical tunic of some Muslim international locations, in faculties. He considers that he goes towards this precept, which is one in every of the pillars of the Republic. In France there’s a 10% Muslim inhabitants.

“It is true that it is not easy to integrate, but the main criterion cannot be the maintenance of one’s well-being,” mentioned Francisco, who highlighted: “Integration is painful, but clairvoyant“His phrases are additionally a denunciation of the discourse of the French far-right, which has lengthy raised the specter of worry and even criticized the Government for being too lax in relation to regulating flows.

Francis delivered this speech at the closing of the Mediterranean conferences, a sequence of conferences with bishops and trustworthy from completely different international locations. The Pope agreed to shut them in Marseilles, a multicultural metropolis (a 3rd of the inhabitants is Muslim) that he does contemplate an instance of integration: It is a “mosaic of hope,” he mentioned yesterday. From the starting he made it clear that he was going “to Marseille, not to France.”

Pese al rapapolvo, Macron had gone out of his option to give him a heat welcome. I obtained him this morning at the Pharo Palace and walked with him a number of meters, arm in arm. They each met for about half an hour. The content material has not transcended, though migration has been one in every of the central themes. Macron has given him two books, one in every of them a primary version of a piece by Albert Camus (L’t) that talks exactly a few journey by a number of Mediterranean international locations.

The Mediterranean, that sea of ​​encounter, of union between international locations that, nevertheless, has turn out to be “a cemetery” of people that flee their international locations and attempt to cross to the different facet, based on the Supreme Pontiff. In the final week, greater than 10,000 unlawful immigrants have arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa. and Europe debates what to do with them. France has already mentioned that it’ll not welcome them, solely those that meet the refugee necessities.

“The words invasion and emergency feed people’s fears,” however “Whoever risks his life at sea does not invade“Looks for shelter, appears for all times,” Francisco recalled. “This migratory phenomenon will not be a momentary emergency, all the time good for sparking alarmist propaganda, however a truth of our time,” he said at the closing of the meetings.

Emmanuel Macron attend the Pope’s mass this afternoon at the city’s Veldromo, the stadium where Olympique de Marseille plays, one of the enclaves that best shows the city’s multiculturalism. It will be the most fun moment of the visit. The president’s attendance at this religious event has been controversial and criticized by the opposition, which considers that it goes against the principle of secularism. The Elseo defends that Macron comes, not as a Catholic, but as head of state who receives another head of state. It is the fourth time that the French president has met Pope Francis.