[HIGHLIGHTS] “His smile is stronger than the violence of death”: the rector of the sanctuary frequented by Émile’s family “touched by their dignity”

Michel Desplanches is rector of the sanctuary of Notre-Dame du Laus in Hautes-Alpes. The family of little Émile attended the sanctuary several times.

“We cannot treat the death of a child like the theft of a shampoo,” he says. ‘There is more, no offense to certain commentators, than emotion. Truth is actually the final stage of reasoning and even intelligence,’ he adds. ‘The cross is always a paradoxical sign. It tells us both the horror of death and the victory of love’