Premier ministre français: s'en prendre à une église, c'est s'en prende à l'essence même de la France

"Ce qui aurait pu arriver est un choc pour tout le monde" (sur l'attentat déjoué contre une église catholique), a déclaré le Premier Ministre Manuel Valls, qui a affirmé que "les chrétiens, les catholiques de France" étaient les premiers visés par le projet d'attentat déjoué.

"Vouloir s'en prendre à une église, c'est s'en prendre à un symbole de la France, c'est l'essence même de la France qu'on a sans doute voulu viser".

Valls : aller à la messe, "la plus belle des réponses à apporter au terrorisme" sur WAT.tv

La cathédrale de Mossoul transformée en mosquée

"Les miliciens du groupe djihadiste Daech ont dévasté le plus ancien cimetière chrétien de Mossoul, au nord de l’Irak, a annoncé l’agence Fides vendredi 17 avril.

Le cimetière se trouve près de la cathédrale syro-orthodoxe dédiée à saint Thomas apôtre. Il abrite notamment de nombreuses tombes de militaires chrétiens morts durant la guerre Iran-Irak.

Les djihadistes, qui contrôlent depuis juin dernier la grande ville de la plaine de Ninive, ont appliqué leur habituelle stratégie de communication, publiant sur Internet les photos des destructions des pierres tombales et des croix, preuve de la mise en œuvre de leur campagne visant à « éradiquer les symboles païens ».

Auparavant, Daech avait profané la cathédrale catholique de Mossoul. Revenant de deux jours de visite aux réfugiés chrétiens à Erbil, dans le Kurdistan irakien les 12 et 13 avril, le cardinal Vincent Nichols, archevêque de Westminster, a rapporté à la presse le témoignage de l’archevêque de Mossoul des chaldéens catholiques, Amel Shimoun Nona, à qui des djihadistes de Daech envoient « régulièrement des photos de ce qu’ils font à la cathédrale » « désacralisée, vandalisée, et transformée en mosquée ». (Le Salon Beige, 23 avril 2015)

 

 

Violan y asesinan a una religiosa de 86 años, en Sudáfrica

(Fides).- Una religiosa austriaca misionera de 86 años, la hermana Stefani Tiefenbacher CPS (Hermanas Misioneras de la Preciosa Sangre), ha sido asesinada en la noche entre el sábado 19 y el domingo 20 de abril en su habitación, en la misión del Sagrado Corazón de Ixopo, en la provincia de KwaZulu-Natal en el este de Sudáfrica.

Según las noticias recibidas por la Agencia Fides otra de las hermanas, alrededor de las 3 a.m. del domingo encontró el cuerpo de la hermana Tiefenbacher: estaba atada y amordazada.

La religiosa murió asfixiada.

La hermana Tiefenbacher estaba en la misión desde hacía 60 años y se dedicaba a los niños pobres de la comunidad local.

La tenerezza di Dio per l’uomo e per la donna

Lo Spirito Santo, che ha ispirato tutta la Bibbia, suggerisce per un momento l’immagine dell’uomo solo - gli manca qualcosa -, senza la donna. E suggerisce il pensiero di Dio, quasi il sentimento di Dio che lo guarda, che osserva Adamo solo nel giardino: è libero, è signore,… ma è solo. E Dio vede che questo «non è bene»: è come una mancanza di comunione, gli manca una comunione, una mancanza di pienezza. «Non è bene» – dice Dio – e aggiunge: «voglio fargli un aiuto che gli corrisponda» (2,18).

Allora Dio presenta all’uomo tutti gli animali; l’uomo dà ad ognuno di essi il suo nome – e questa è un’altra immagine della signoria dell’uomo sul creato –, ma non trova in alcun animale l’altro simile a sé. L’uomo continua solo. Quando finalmente Dio presenta la donna, l’uomo riconosce esultante che quella creatura, e solo quella, è parte di lui: «osso dalle mie ossa, carne dalla mia carne» (2,23). Finalmente c’è un rispecchiamento, una reciprocità. Quando una persona – è un esempio per capire bene questo – vuole dare la mano a un’altra, deve averla davanti a sé: se uno dà la mano e non ha nessuno la mano rimane lì….., gli manca la reciprocità. Così era l’uomo, gli mancava qualcosa per arrivare alla sua pienezza, gli mancava la reciprocità. La donna non è una “replica” dell’uomo; viene direttamente dal gesto creatore di Dio. L’immagine della “costola” non esprime affatto inferiorità o subordinazione, ma, al contrario, che uomo e donna sono della stessa sostanza e sono complementari e che hanno anche questa reciprocità. E il fatto che – sempre nella parabola – Dio plasmi la donna mentre l’uomo dorme, sottolinea proprio che lei non è in alcun modo una creatura dell’uomo, ma di Dio. Suggerisce anche un’altra cosa: per trovare la donna - e possiamo dire per trovare l’amore nella donna -, l’uomo prima deve sognarla e poi la trova.

La fiducia di Dio nell’uomo e nella donna, ai quali affida la terra, è generosa, diretta, e piena. Si fida di loro. Ma ecco che il maligno introduce nella loro mente il sospetto, l’incredulità, la sfiducia. E infine, arriva la disobbedienza al comandamento che li proteggeva. Cadono in quel delirio di onnipotenza che inquina tutto e distrugge l’armonia. Anche noi lo sentiamo dentro di noi tante, volte, tutti.

Il peccato genera diffidenza e divisione fra l’uomo e la donna. Il loro rapporto verrà insidiato da mille forme di prevaricazione e di assoggettamento, di seduzione ingannevole e di prepotenza umiliante, fino a quelle più drammatiche e violente. La storia ne porta le tracce. Pensiamo, ad esempio, agli eccessi negativi delle culture patriarcali. Pensiamo alle molteplici forme di maschilismo dove la donna era considerata di seconda classe. Pensiamo alla strumentalizzazione e mercificazione del corpo femminile nell’attuale cultura mediatica. Ma pensiamo anche alla recente epidemia di sfiducia, di scetticismo, e persino di ostilità che si diffonde nella nostra cultura – in particolare a partire da una comprensibile diffidenza delle donne – riguardo ad un’alleanza fra uomo e donna che sia capace, al tempo stesso, di affinare l’intimità della comunione e di custodire la dignità della differenza.

Se non troviamo un soprassalto di simpatia per questa alleanza, capace di porre le nuove generazioni al riparo dalla sfiducia e dall’indifferenza, i figli verranno al mondo sempre più sradicati da essa fin dal grembo materno. La svalutazione sociale per l’alleanza stabile e generativa dell’uomo e della donna è certamente una perdita per tutti. Dobbiamo riportare in onore il matrimonio e la famiglia! La Bibbia dice una cosa bella: l’uomo trova la donna, si incontrano e l’uomo deve lasciare qualcosa per trovarla pienamente. Per questo l’uomo lascerà suo padre e sua madre per andare da lei. E’ bello! Questo significa incominciare una nuova strada. L’uomo è tutto per la donna e la donna è tutta per l’uomo.

La custodia di questa alleanza dell’uomo e della donna, anche se peccatori e feriti, confusi e umiliati, sfiduciati e incerti, è dunque per noi credenti una vocazione impegnativa e appassionante, nella condizione odierna. Lo stesso racconto della creazione e del peccato, nel suo finale, ce ne consegna un’icona bellissima: «Il Signore Dio fece all’uomo e a sua moglie tuniche di pelle e li vestì» (Gen 3,21). E’ un’immagine di tenerezza verso quella coppia peccatrice che ci lascia a bocca aperta: la tenerezza di Dio per l’uomo e per la donna! E’ un’immagine di custodia paterna della coppia umana. Dio stesso cura e protegge il suo capolavoro. (Papa Francesco, Udienza, 22 aprile 2015)

23 aprile: San Giorgio

San Giorgio è uno dei santi più venerati del mondo. San Giorgio nacque a Lod (oggi in Israele) tra il 256 e il 285 da un ufficiale romano e da una donna della Palestina e venne presto convertito al cristianesimo dai suoi genitori. Da giovane Giorgio si presentò all’imperatore Diocleziano e, grazie alla figura di suo padre, riuscì a farsi arruolare nell’esercito e a diventare poi guardia scelta dell’imperatore. Nel 302, però, Diocleziano emanò un editto che prevedeva l’arresto per i soldati romani cristiani. Giorgio allora, in nome di tutti i militari cristiani, si ribellò per difendere la sua fede. La leggenda narra che Diocleziano fece di tutto per convertirlo al paganesimo romano con numerosi doni, tutti rifiutati da Giorgio. Allora Diocleziano lo fece torturare e decretò la sua condanna a morte, per la quale Giorgio venne dichiarato martire.

San Giorgio è spesso raffigurato mentre uccide il drago. La leggenda più famosa narra che un giorno San Giorgio passasse per una città di nome Selem (in Libia), dove in un lago viveva un grosso e insaziabile drago che non si accontentava più di mangiare le pecore offertegli dagli abitanti ma voleva esseri umani. Allora gli abitanti cominciarono a offrirgli i loro figli, scelti per sorteggio, per placare la sua furia. Un giorno la sorte scelse la principessa Silene, la figlia del re locale. Proprio in quel momento arrivò San Giorgio che uccise il drago e salvò Silene. Prima però fece convertire al cristianesimo tutta la popolazione di Selem.

Pope Francis to Cuba: it’s official!

Vatican spokesman Fr. Federico Lombardi S.J. confirmed to journalists today that Pope Francis will make a pastoral stop in Cuba ahead of his September apostolic voyage to the United States.

The Vatican spokesman made the announcement to journalists April 22 around 2:15p.m. in the Holy See press office.

In an official statement released shortly after, the spokesman said: “I am able to confirm that the Holy Father Francis, having received and accepted the invitation from the civil authorities and bishops of Cuba, has decided to pay a visit to the island before his arrival in the United States.”

Although the details of the stop have not been released, it is expected that Pope Francis will meet with Cuban authorities. He is not expected to meet with Cuban president Raul Castro, according to a Vatican source.

Cardinal Beniamino Stella, Prefect of the Congregation of the Clergy, traveled to Cuba April 22, where he will stay until the 28th in celebration of the 80th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the Holy See.

Cardinal Stella served as papal nuncio to Cuba from 1993-1999, and helped pave the way and organize St. John Paul II’s visit in 1998, which marked the first-ever papal trip to the Caribbean Island.

The cardinal is set to meet with local clergy during his visit, and will celebrate three Masses. He will also encounter the top officials of the Cuban government and of the Communist Party.

His visit may represent a further fostering of the Holy See contribution in Cuba, and could be seen as a sign of the papal effort to help normalize relations between Cuba and the United States.

On the eve of the Dec. 17 announcement of the normalization of the diplomatic relations between Cuba and the United States, former Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone traveled to Cuba for a private visit.

In the coming days Archbishop Giorgio Lingua, former papal nuncio to Jordan and Iraq, will take up his post as the new nuncio to Cuba. He was appointed to the position March 17, and one of his main tasks will be to help facilitate talks between U.S. and Cuba.

The stop in Cuba this year fits within the framework of Pope Francis’ efforts in the dialogue, since Washington and Havana are currently in talks to re-establish full diplomatic ties.

Now that it's official, the stop will be the first in a week-long papal voyage to the United States. Although the official program for the Pope’s trip to the U.S. has not been released, some appointments have been already been confirmed.

Pope Francis will be the first pope to speak to a joint session of the U.S. Congress in Washington, which is scheduled to take place Sept. 24.

On March 18, secretary general of the United Nations Ban Ki Moon made it official that Francis will address the U.N. General Assembly in New York Sept. 25, and then move on to Philadelphia Sep. 26-27 to attend the World Meeting of Families.

The Pope’s appointments in New York are also expected to include a visit to Ground Zero, the site of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2001, that brought down New York City’s twin World Trade Center towers.

In Philadelphia, the two big events the Pope is anticipated to attend are a prayer vigil on the 26th and Sunday Mass on the 27th.

The organizational committee for the Pope’s U.S. visit includes: Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Holy See Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York; Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, papal nuncio to the United States; Cardinal Donald Wuerl, archbishop of Washington; Cardinal Sean Patrick O’Malley, archbishop of Boston; Archbishop Joseph Kurtz of Louisville, also president of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops; Cardinal Timothy Dolan, archbishop of New York; Archbishop Charles Chaput of Philadelphia; Msgr. Ronny Jenkins, secretary-general at the bishops’ conference, as well as a team of various secretaries and assistants. ((CNA/EWTN News, april 22th 2015).

Giaculatoria del giorno

 

 

 

O Maria! Vergine prudentissima, Madre clementissima, prega per noi, intercedi per noi presso il Signore Gesù Cristo.

Why Boarding Schools Are Good for Teenage Boys

Teenage boys will not be freed from the bog they are immured in by new-fangled modifications and medications, but by old-fashioned reason and remedies. Boys today suffer from despondency, lack of direction, and a masculine identity crisis, overwhelmed as they are by widespread feminization, relativism, pornography, and cultural collapse. The quandary is rooted in a neglect of male nature, and a return to real attentiveness is requisite before there can be any renewal in male character.

Meanwhile, boys remain under siege. They live virtual lives. They underachieve and underperform. They don’t go to college. The men they become are often crippled by passivity and insipidity, cheating church and country of priests, fathers, laborers, and leaders. One solution lies in making education lively enough to bring boys back to life. A revival of Catholic boarding schools for high-school age boys is central to this solution, for it allows life and education to be liturgical, imparting the greatest impetus, the truest direction, and the richest culture—which is the foundation of a happy life.

What Makes a Boarding School Good?

The field of education is thirsty for the wisdom of tradition. What is required is not necessarily holding to particular historical forms, but recovering what is essential in historical forms and returning to eternal principles. In popular culture, there is a polemic against tradition and authority, often cloaked in shrewd rhetoric or sheer repetition, but the mantra is communicated loud and clear. Catholics must rise to defend the wisdom of tradition and show its relevance, beauty, and vitality. One arena for this restoration is the lost tradition and wisdom of the boarding school.

The idea of a boarding school does not simply presume resident students. Neither does it presume a reformatory for juvenile delinquents. Good boarding schools lead students in an ordered rule of life. If teenage boys are to be rescued from apathy, cynicism, and mediocrity, the following characteristics are indispensible:

Catholic moral, intellectual, and liturgical tradition

classical education with poetry, music, the imaginative arts, and natural sciences

total abstinence from computers, cell phones, iPods, iPads, television, etc.

competitive athletic programs involving contact sports

facilities that are simple and Spartan in a rural setting

Benedictine balance of daily prayers and daily chores

small student body and a faculty of friends

If a renaissance in Catholic education is to take root and flourish, the necessity of these principles have to be acknowledged. A blind and reactive insistence on rationalist fundamentalism may be attractive in the short term, but will ultimately lead to failure because it does not address what Scripture calls the heart, the deepest spring of reason and desire. A boarding school that keeps these precepts can open the shut-up hearts of boys to the realms of wonder and wisdom in a familial yet formal arena geared towards providing teaching moments in the structure of every hour of every day. Within this structure is the potential for Catholic culture—a sense of community and the charity, service, and sacrifice that flow from living and learning with others.

Why is Boarding School Good for Boys?

Boys need nourishing culture. They need retreat. They need pilgrimage. They need to have and share an intense experience of the good in order to be moved by the good. A good boarding school responds directly to the maladies of modern boyhood, creating a lively culture and educating as a way of life. Certainly, parents are the primary educators and the home and family provide his initial cultural formation. A boarding school cannot replace this, but it can complement and complete it. When boys become adolescents they are much more aware of, and in need of, the social life of their peers.

There is a long-standing tradition in schooling that favors single-sex education. It is a model that was accepted by societies for centuries and preferred by many saintly educators. Boys and girls live and learn better when they are educated separately, especially once they reach adolescence. Besides that they are different and deserve different approaches, pacing, and even different courses of study, boys and girls, when educated together, greatly distract one another. This is especially true for boys. Such distraction—whether from girls, entertainment technology, or popular and pernicious media—retards education, which strives to build up good habits through continual and concentrated engagement. Boarding schools can provide such continuity because they render education a continuous, focused, habit-forming thing.

A boarding school rooted in the Catholic, classical mode of learning is good for boys damaged by the utilitarian ugliness of modernity because it allows for withdrawal from the prevailing culture into a traditional culture reinforced by peers. True masculine education educates the whole man, and, to do this effectively, asceticism is required—a withdrawal from the rampant impediments to growth and health. A boarding school provides a wholesome, safe “micro-culture” in which boys reinforce each other in virtuous formation, preparing to enter the wider culture outside. There is a need for the positivity that such intensive, immersive education provides. Boys can only grow and thrive when they are given high ideals and the hope that they can bring these ideals into being in their world, despite the careerism and sarcastic nihilism of the current culture.

Boarding schools should focus on discipline that blends the militaristic and the monastic, thus addressing the issues that boys vie with most. If boys lack drive, give them independence and responsibility. If boys are isolated and neglected, let them taste the camaraderie of community through athletics and shared activities. Boys can only profit by leaving behind large coed classes and learning in a concentrated male environment where they are free to be masculine, and where their masculinity is addressed and cultivated. The common struggle between the rigor of school and the relaxation of home disappears at boarding school, for school and home become a single entity, focused on enacting the good. Boarding schools are intrinsically appropriate for boys since the male trajectory involves breaking away from home to search for adventure and occupation—a trajectory often impeded by the unnatural, defeatist influences of the world.

How is Boarding School Liturgical?

The rhythms of a rightly ordered Catholic boarding school are liturgical because they frame out and measure the interplay of God and man, body and soul, mind and heart. The liturgy is the purpose of Christian life made present in time—it is participation on earth in the life of the blessed. The end of education is to free men from the seeming urgency and finality of worldly ends so that they may pursue beatitude. Thus the liturgy is intimately connected to education. It has an irreplaceable centrality in a school since only the liturgy can open the school to the divine world, thus protecting it from the everyday world that continually threatens.

The liturgy is a school of praise. Education aims to open students’ eyes to the True, Good, and Beautiful not as lifeless subjects in a textbook, but as objects worthy of praise. The environment where such habits can be formed and fostered is best achieved in a boarding school where life can be liturgical: a life of praise and participation, providing direct and decisive remedy against the lethargy so prevalent among teenage boys.

A boarding school loses power in pedagogy, however, without strong spiritual leadership built upon liturgy and the sacraments. One of the main points of a Catholic boys’ boarding school is to allow Holy Orders to sound its call. Key to this is the role of a priest. Boys need a model they admire and want to emulate, presenting the priesthood as essential and meaningful. No boy aspires to be an ineffectual nice guy. In a boarding school, the example of the chaplain is crucial. A virile chaplain dedicated to God and the good of others can plant seeds that come to fruition as a boy matures.

Boarding schools that are rigorous, vigorous, and devoted to Catholic excellence and cultural enjoyment draw boys to maturity—an important goal in any boy’s education when the prevalent plague is a refusal to grow up. Boarding schools offer lost boys the chance to find themselves by revealing who they are—their strengths, their weaknesses, their place in a community of friends, and their role in the liturgy of eternal life unfolding in time. Ultimately, teenage boys respond well to challenge and competition, to facing fears and rejoicing in achievement with friends, and boarding schools provide this as no other school can in a secure environment. In the end, boarding schools are better for most boys because they are hard; and since they are hard, they make boys happy—which is the secret of any real education.

Sean Fitzpatrick, Crisis Magazine, march 9, 2015

Marthe Robin, une vie inutile et absurde ? Guérison miraculeuse obtenue par son intercession

Marthe Robin est née en 1902, dans une famille de petits agriculteurs, à la ferme des Moilles à Châteauneuf de Galaure dans la Drôme. Handicapée à partir de l’âge de 16 ans, elle a une vie mystique intense, tout en étant très présente à la vie du monde et de l’Eglise et à tous ceux qui venaient lui demander conseils. Elle meurt en 1981. Le procès diocésain en vue de sa béatification a été ouvert en 1986. Le 7 novembre 2014, le Pape François a autorisé la Congrégation pour la Cause des Saints à promulguer un décret reconnaissant les vertus héroïques de Marthe Robin, une laïque française, fondatrice de l’Association des Foyers de Charité.

Un dossier présentant une guérison miraculeuse obtenue par l’intercession de Marthe Robin (1902-1981) a été déposé à Rome. Regard du P. Bernard Peyrous, postulateur de la cause de béatification, sur son témoignage d’écoute et d’attention aux autres pendant les 53 années qu’elle passa alitée.

Qu’est-ce qui caractérise la figure de Marthe Robin ?

C’est une femme très simple, d’origine paysanne, gravement handicapée, qui depuis sa chambre a fondé les Foyers de charité [communautés de baptisés, dont la mission principale est l’animation de retraites spirituelles. On compte 76 Foyers de charité à travers le monde, dont 12 en France métropolitaine]. Précurseur de Vatican II, elle a reçu plus de 100 000 personnes en entretien dans sa chambre. C’est une femme qui a eu une influence énorme, qui a donné sa vie pour le renouvellement de l’Église. Je vois en elle la sainte patronne de la Nouvelle Évangélisation.

Comment peut-elle toucher, aujourd’hui, les personnes fragiles, malades, en fin de vie ?

C’est le plus important. Marthe Robin a eu une vie humaine perdue. Malade dès l’âge de 6 ans, grabataire à 18 ans, elle a passé 53 ans dans son lit, souffrant affreusement d’une encéphalite qu’à l’époque on ne pouvait ni soigner, ni soulager. Elle représente ce que le monde actuel rejette : aujourd’hui l’euthanasie aurait sans doute été proposée. Or son évolution spirituelle, puisqu’il s’agit bien de ça, liée à la découverte de la Passion du Christ et de son amour donné jusqu’au bout provoque en elle un véritable retournement. À partir d’une vie inutile, elle devient l’une des femmes les plus influentes en France. Elle incarne parfaitement le Magnificat : les pauvres, les inutiles, ceux qui n’ont pas de place dans la société sont bénis par Dieu. Son témoignage est extrêmement fort. Il triomphe de la faiblesse. Le chemin de Marthe Robin montre qu’il n’y a pas d’explication à la vie humaine en dehors du Christ. C’est lui qui apporte une lumière qui transforme toute situation. Au nom de la vie donnée par le Christ : il y a toujours une espérance, aucune vie n’est perdue. Marthe Robin en est une démonstration aveuglante.

Quelle parole particulière retenez-vous d’elle ?

Marthe Robin a beaucoup parlé, elle a eu de nombreuses conversations*. Mais ce qui s’exprime d’abord chez elle, c’est un sourire de bonté, d’affection, de bienveillance. Ce sourire d’amitié, même si on ne le voyait pas, est le plus frappant chez elle, avec l’écoute et l’attention aux autres. Dans le livre « Ce que Marthe leur a dit », nous avons sélectionné des paroles, pour la majorité publiées pour la première fois, extraites de ses conversations, où elle est le plus elle-même. Comme ce n’est pas un récit, le lecteur peut choisir de lire tel ou tel passage, comme s’il conversait directement avec Marthe. Nous avons souhaité la rendre familière à tout un chacun. On ne peut nier sa vie mystique tellement forte, mais on doit respecter aussi sa discrétion et il y a certaines périodes où l’on ne sait rien sur les phénomènes extraordinaires qu’elle vivait. Nous avons effectué un tri important pour choisir les échanges qui permettent de la voir telle qu’elle était, très humaine, dans son ordinaire. Elle incarne parfaitement le verbe de Péguy, « le spirituel est devenu charnel » : dans son lit, elle reçoit à la ferme et se rend extrêmement présente aux gens. Tous les extraits proposés dans le livre me touchent, ce serait vraiment difficile d’en choisir un.

Qu’est-ce que la reconnaissance de l’héroïcité de ses vertus, en novembre 2014, dit de la vie de l’Église en France ?

Les dépôts de causes de béatifications françaises ont été très nombreux au XIXe siècle et très faibles au XXe siècle. Tout à coup arrive à Rome toute une saisine de causes : Robert Schuman, Edmond Michelet, Claire de Castelbajac, le P. Henri Caffarel, Jérôme Lejeune, Marthe Robin, et bien d’autres encore. Ces dossiers sont sérieux et bien menés. Nous risquons de connaître une série de déclarations d’héroïcité des vertus et de béatifications ! La France de la fin du XXe siècle connaît, en temps de crise, une sainteté très présente. Or les saints sont des fondateurs, des pères et des mères, un espoir des temps nouveaux. L’Église nous montre sa capacité à engendrer des saints, capables de porter du fruit. La vie de Marthe Robin du point de vue humain est une absurdité complète : mais son influence est extrêmement féconde. Elle a d’ailleurs connu la plupart de ces personnes mortes en réputation de sainteté. Elle était un carrefour et un carrefour de saints ! (Florence de Maistre, Eglise Catholique en France, 20 avril 2015)

Centenaire du début du génocide arménien: Les églises de Bayonne sonneront le glas vendredi 24 à 19h15

"Le 24 avril 2015 marque le 100ème anniversaire du début du génocide arménien mis en oeuvre par l'Empire ottoman et qui fut le premier, mais non le dernier génocide du XXème siècle (les historiens s'accordent sur le nombre de un million et demi de morts)... Le message du Pape François publié le 12 avril dernier à l'occasion du Centenaire du génocide arménien invite à faire mémoire de ces tragiques événements. Dans notre diocèse, une Messe à la mémoire des victimes de ce génocide sera célébrée vendredi 24 avril à 15h  à Biarritz (église Sainte-Eugénie); une gerbe sera ensuite déposée à 17h au Monument aux morts (Rocher de la Vierge) en présence du maire de Biarritz, de Mgr Aillet, de diverses personnalités et des représentants de l'association "Agur Arménie".

En hommage à toutes les victimes de cette tragédie, Monseigneur Marc Aillet prie les curés de paroisses de bien vouloir faire sonner le glas, vendredi 24 avril à 19h15, dans l'église principale ou l'une des églises de leur paroisse (19h15 correspond symboliquement à l'année 1915).

Nous serons d'autant plus sensibles à ces commémorations que les chrétiens d'Orient sont, dans de nombreux pays (Irak, Syrie etc.), de nouveau victimes, aujourd'hui, de terribles persécutions de la part de fondamentalistes qui rêvent d'éradiquer toute présence chrétienne, encouragés par le "silence complice" (Pape François le 3 avril 2015, à l'issue du chemin de croix du Vendredi Saint) qui est trop souvent le nôtre". (Monseigneur Marc Aillet , L'évêque de Bayonne, Lescar et Oloron)