This evening, everywhere in France, the faithful will go to Christmas mass in a rather unusual climate.
Online reservations, condemned benches, the midnight mass will have a limited appearance, not to mention the hydroalcoholic gel and compulsory masks.
These measures come after two months of a soap opera which saw a ban on mass in public, demonstrations in front of churches, protests by bishops and appeals before the Council of State.
This unprecedented situation of the Church will nourish the conversations of the New Year's Eve, because it maintains, among many of our fellow citizens, the feeling that for their rulers, faith is not in the register of the "essential".
As if God wasn't as happy as that in France anymore.
Admittedly, this picky regulatoryism, sometimes to the point of absurdity, is not pleasant.
Certainly, the news is not cheerful - the death of three gendarmes shot by a madman reminds us: families will spend Christmas in tears.
But let's look up further.
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