Pope warns against religion that stokes divisions

AJACCIO, France:Pope Francis urged Catholic priests on Sunday to guard against spiritual groups that stoke political divisions, speaking during a one-day visit to Corsica, the first by a pontiff to the French Mediterranean island.

At a conference on religion in the Mediterranean region, the pontiff warned against varieties of spirituality that “seek self-aggrandisement by fuelling polemics, narrow-mindedness, divisions and exclusivist attitudes”.

“The Church’s pastors (are) called to be vigilant, to exercise discernment and to be constantly attentive to (these) popular forms of religiosity,” the pope said.

Francis, making his third and probably last foreign trip of 2024, did not name any specific religious groups.

Corsica has a long history of lay Catholic associations, known as confraternities. They usually focus on spiritual matters but sometimes play a role in local politics.

The pope spent about nine hours in Ajaccio, Corsica’s capital. After attending the conference, he celebrated an outdoor Mass with what the Vatican estimated was a crowd of 15,000 Catholics. He also met French President Emmanuel Macron.

Visiting places that often do not draw international attention is part of the pope’s policy of highlighting people and problems in what he calls the “peripheries” of the world.

In the course of his 11-year papacy Francis has still not visited most of the capitals of Western Europe, including Paris.

Macron had invited Francis to attend the Dec. 7 reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral, five years after a devastating fire nearly destroyed the medieval building. The pope decided not to go, and the two instead met briefly at Ajaccio airport on Sunday before Francis headed back to Rome.

Francis thanked Macron for making the visit to Corsica to see him. Macron, who took the pope by the hand during a routine diplomatic gift exchange, said it was a “great honour” to come.