The Catholic episcopate is a complex, slow machine, both united and divided.
The hundred bishops who make up the episcopal assembly obey only the pope.
They have no account to render to their elected president, Bishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort, if not out of a sense of solidarity for the Church of France, but, hierarchically, they depend on Rome.
The apostolic nuncio has more power over them than their president.
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Thus, the assembly of the bishops of France has more of a federation of small employers than a regiment of hussars at attention.
She has a hard time speaking with one voice.
And, when she succeeds in doing so, the speech is so careful to take everyone into account, of what will be said among the "brothers" of other religions or in the secular world, that it is often lukewarm. .
In a land of secularism, being Catholic would consist in not getting angry, nor in angering others, the government, in this case.
Under pressure from the faithful and overwhelmed priests
Illustration of this fearful attitude, the debate on the ban
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