Cardinal Aveline urges French Church to heed youth identity quests, invoke John Paul II and Benedict XVI amid antisemitism and populism threats.
Newsroom (06/11/2025, Gaudium Press ) Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, president of the French Bishops’ Conference, opened the Autumn Plenary Assembly on November 4 with a stark assessment of France’s fracturing social fabric, declaring democracy itself under threat from resurgent antisemitism and menacing populisms.
Addressing the nation’s episcopate in Lourdes, Aveline painted a grim portrait of eroding civic discourse, where hate speech normalizes and spiritual voids commodify life, earth, and human relations. Quoting Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, he warned: “When God disappears from human sight, the earth becomes a commodity to be exploited, the other a rival to be feared, and life itself a commodity.”
The cardinal urged empathy for younger generations‘ “gnawing” hunger for identity, framing it as a legitimate pursuit to nurture rather than condemn. “We must consider it positively, understand it, and nurture it, so that it is not exploited to serve as an alibi for dangerous identity-based tensions,” he said, advocating roots that foster openness over exclusion.
Anchoring the Church’s response in papal legacy, Aveline invoked Saint John Paul II’s 1986 encyclical Dominum et vivificantem: “It is beautiful and salutary to think that, wherever prayer is offered in the world, the Holy Spirit, the lifeblood of prayer, is present.” He credited the late pontiff with illuminating Trinitarian theology’s missionary urgency, distilling it memorably: “The Church quickly runs out of steam if it tries to breathe in place of the Spirit.”
Drawing on Benedict XVI, Aveline referenced the 2004 dialogue between then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and philosopher Jürgen Habermas, calling for mutual critique: denouncing religion’s coercive pathologies via reason, and reason’s spiritual neglect via faith. This equilibrium, he argued, safeguards freedom and dignity amid crisis.
Aveline’s address positions the French Church as a beacon of discernment, blending vigilant social engagement with fidelity to the Holy Spirit in a nation adrift.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Tribune Chretienne
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