Over 60,000 folks gathered in Marseille’s velodrome stadium in France, to take heed to the pontiff give mass.
Many devoted got here from throughout French areas to see the pope, who final visited the nation nearly a decade in the past.
The pope’s go to to town in southern France, which drew an estimated 150,000 well-wishers Saturday, comes as Italy’s far right-led authorities has reacted to a brand new wave of arriving migrants by threatening to arrange a naval blockade of Tunisia and to step up repatriations. The French authorities, for its half, has beefed up patrols on its southern border to cease migrants in Italy from crossing over.
Migrants and their advocates dwelling in Marseille, which has a protracted custom of multicultural hospitality, stated Francis’ name for charity and paths to citizenship gave them hope that at the very least somebody in Europe was sympathetic to their plight.
In his remarks, Francis additionally repeated his opposition to euthanasia, which he has lengthy decried as a symptom of a “throwaway tradition” which treats the aged and infirm as dispensable. Itemizing euthanasia as a “social evil,” he criticized supporters of assisted suicide as offering “false pretences of a supposedly dignified and ‘candy’ dying that’s extra ‘salty’ than the waters of the ocean.”
The problem is present in France, the place Macron is anticipated within the coming weeks to unveil a invoice that might legalize end-of-life choices in France. French media reported that he delayed the presentation of the measure till after the pope’s go to to maintain the delicate subject from interfering.
No particulars of the federal government’s proposal have been launched, however a number of choices are into consideration, together with legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia for grownup sufferers with incurable circumstances beneath strict circumstances that assure their free and knowledgeable consent.
The French presidency stated Francis and Macron mentioned the difficulty throughout their bilateral assembly however did not enter into the main points.