The Archbishop of Marseilles, Georges Pontier, the new president of
the bishops’ conference, has denounced the French Government’s policy
towards new arrivals from Bulgaria and Romania.
Archbishop Pontier told the autumn assembly of the bishops’
conference in Lourdes last week that the only policy being implemented
was to reject most “people of Bulgarian and Romanian origin” and destroy
their shanty towns instead of letting them integrate into French
society.
He insisted that many of these people wanted to fit in.
He did
not use the usual word “Roms” to describe them, saying some French
people had turned it into an insult.
In his keynote address, the archbishop played down the
church-supported campaign against same-sex marriage, a major topic at
last autumn’s Lourdes meeting, prompting commentators to note a “Pope
Francis effect” and change in style from his more combative predecessor
Cardinal André Vingt-Trois.
The archbishop, 70, said church leaders should discuss social issues
“with much humility and the keen awareness that our words should be
matched by acts and initiatives.”