It is the annual meeting of all the priests of each diocese, around their bishop. During this
“Chrismal Mass”
the holy oils are blessed which will be used, throughout the year, for the sacraments in the parishes. The priests also solemnly renew their priestly commitment before the bishop. A ceremony which took place for the last time on Wednesday evening in the Saint Sulpice Church - it will be at Notre Dame de Paris in 2025. The Archbishop of Paris, Mgr Laurent Ulrich, alongside pastoral considerations, returned to it on two subjects policies, the inclusion of the freedom to abort in the Constitution and the bill on the end of life.
On the first point, abortion, he expressed the
“disappointment”
of the Church and defended in particular the
“freedom of conscience”
of healthcare workers.
“The challenge of the witness of faith is always the announcement of the salvation of the whole world, of which we are not the authors, but relays
,” he said.
Thus, when we mark our disappointment with the inclusion of freedom of abortion in the constitution of our Republic, we question – we did it, I did it – about freedom, I mean the climate of freedom , the pressures of common opinion, which will remain on women who want to keep the child inside them, on the freedom of conscience of doctors and caregivers who will not want to practice such gestures.
“All human life deserves to be respected”
As for the bill on the end of life, he spoke
of "euthanasia"
, announcing a
"struggle"
of the Church to obtain palliative care:
"When we understand that all the democratic prerequisites have been placed on the path of a law which opens, in fact, the door of legality to euthanasia, we want to continue to proclaim without tiring that all human life deserves to be respected and accompanied unconditionally with authentic fraternity. (And) we reaffirm our attachment to the French way of refusing induced death and the priority given to palliative care”
quoting here the text of the declaration of the bishops of France in Lourdes a week ago.
He added:
“(As) I did on the subject of abortion, I also question freedom, the climate of freedom which will remain for people who live and will live their illness or their old age like a lot of suffering for them, or an accompanying weight for others! »
And to warn:
“No, we will not tire of demanding that palliative care benefit from real political support and rapid development, and not postponed ten years ahead of us, that is to say Never. We will fight, with all those who practice and develop them, so that they express the best of fraternity in action which helps to live to the end in relationship with an entourage who holds the hand at the moment of the great passage. »