"I will be frank with you". Emmanuel Macron repeated this sentence many times during the two hours and ten minutes of audio conference with the spiritual authorities of the country. All the major religions were represented as well as the different Masonic lodges. From the outset, the president was very clear: the places of worship will not reopen on May 11, but perhaps early or even mid-June depending on the development of the situation.
"The worst thing would be to reopen too quickly, too hard and then be forced to close," said Emmanuel Macron. And no large gathering - religious or otherwise - will be allowed before the end of the summer. "Any action requires caution, developed the head of state, things change every day, you have to be humble. "
Pay more attention to the weak
Emmanuel Macron also asked the spiritual leaders to participate in explaining all this to the French. Chief Rabbi Haim Korsia, François Clavairoly President of the Protestant Federation of France, Éric de Moulins-d'Amieu de Beaufort President of the Conference of Bishops of France, Mohammed Moussaoui President of the French Council of Muslim Worship (CFCM), Olivier Reigen Wang -Genh for the Buddhist worship, and the grand masters of the different Masonic lodges all spoke one after the other.
According to several participants, there was one thing in common with each of the interventions: a request that the government pay more attention to the weakest, the most fragile. In this regard, the restoration of visiting rights in nursing homes, and in hospitals for the dying, was welcomed by several speakers.
"It was nice to see everyone hope together"
Emmanuel Macron also took advantage of this exchange to deliver his vision of the difficulty of the moment. For him, the French are in a "paradoxical aspiration, in a tension between the desire to regain their freedom, their former life, and at the same time the fear of the virus. All government action must be thought in terms of this injunction, "launched the head of state. Then Emmanuel Macron developed with this almost philosophical prediction: "We will not find life before, he asserted, but we will have to try to keep the sense of what this suspension (Editor's note: confinement) has brought ".
A participant deciphers: "Emmanuel Macron finds that this period shows that the French are a great people, capable of solidarity and discipline, and that will have to be preserved in the next world". A little later, the head of state had this other dark sentence: "Our societies are learning to live with their finitude again". But the discussions also focused on hope. The Chief Rabbi of France, Haim Korsia concludes: "It was nice to see everyone hope together".