3 posts tagged “france”
Here's a fun one for you. Pope Benedict begins a visit to France this week... lots of pomp and ceremony and a pilgrimage to Lourdes. And here's a quote about the visit from one Sandro Magister, a respected Vatican expert who writes for the Italian weekly L’Espresso:
"The German pope hopes to use the trip to boost the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in France, a country he considers “the sick man of Christian Europe,” Magister said.
Well call me impudent, but am I alllowed to say that it doesn't seem likey to boost the influence of the Catholic church in France that it's figurehead leader calls the nation 'the sick man of Christian Europe'? I'm not sure that many French people will be thrilled to be labelled thus, and I'm not sure how many Christians, Catholic or Protestant, would want to be associated with such a judgement. Europe in general is an interesting and challenging place to do mission - I have lived and worked in the UK, France and Holland, and engaged in mission in several other countries - and each country has its own ways of making life difficult for the church, but the myth that France is in a 'sicker' place than any other nation is foolish and mis-guided.
It is a myth also believed by many Protestants, and it's about time we stopped spreading it. There remain challenges for the Gospel in France, of course, but there are also signs of hope and renewal: and there is a very beautiful purity and commitment amongst French Christians - again, both Protestant and Catholic. Yes there are less Christians proportionately than in many other countries, but there is also less nominalism; less confusion about the meddling of church and state; less sloppy merging of faith with lazy ideas. And some of the French people who have walked away from the church have done so for some of the most noble and laudible reasons: it is possible to argue that secularism in France gained the ground that it did not because the people were not Christian enough, but because the church was not Christian enough. Liberty, equality and fraternity are not goals alien to Scripture: it is just tragic that a particular generation - and many since - were not able to find them in the church.
Perhaps we should pray that Benedict will come out of France with a more optimistic view than he goes in with?
Thought I should post this image from the recent Bike2bless trip in normandy. The village of Camembert - from whence the cheese of the same name originates - is at the top of quite a hill, so reaching it was both a trial and a joy... A great trip though, and we raised something close to €5000 for mission. We're already tinking about next year, so do get in touch if you want to join...
If you are interested in sponsoring the up-coming bike2bless event in France, you can now do so via the web.
Click here to visit my on-line spnsorship page, or make a note of the address for a later visit: http://www.justgiving.com/gerardkelly1
Thanks to those who have already started the ball rolling... Let's roll it all the way to Camembert and back!
