French prelate reflects on January shooting, warns against isolationism
March 26, 2015
Addressing the Bishops’ Conference of France, Archbishop Georges Pontier of Marseille, the conference’s president, reflected on the Charlie Hebdo shooting.
It is important, said the prelate, for Jews to know how important their presence is in France, for Muslims to know how important it is “to continue to learn to live together,” and for Christians to forgive and guard against fear.
“The secularity of the state is the guardian of liberty of conscience, liberty of religion and worship” as well as of “civil peace,” he continued, but does not imply asking others to renounce religious expression or stigmatizing it.
Archbishop Pontier warned that France and other European nations are experiencing a “re-nationalization … characterized by mistrust” and called for attentiveness to the good of others, particularly the poor.
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