Manuel Valls emphasizes Catholic culture of France and warns of division.<\/p>\n
It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the kind of sentiment one would expect to hear from the leader of a nation that prides itself on its history of secularism.<\/p>\n
But in the wake of a thwarted terrorist attack on churches in France this past weekend, Prime Minister Manuel Valls was clear: attending Mass is \u00e2\u20ac\u0153the most beautiful and strongest” answer to terrorism.<\/p>\n
Valls spoke to reporters while standing next to Bishop Michel Santier of Creteil, the diocese south of Paris where one or more churches were allegedly in the crosshairs of a 24-year-old Algerian national. The plot, foiled when the student accidentally shot himself and called for an ambulance, was, according to Valls, the fifth terrorist attack authorites thwarted since the Charlie Hebdo attack in January.<\/p>\n
“What could have happened is a shock to everyone,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Valls said, adding that he wanted to meet with Church officials to express \u00e2\u20ac\u0153our deep emotion and our total solidarity\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. This time, it was the Christians, the Catholics of France, who were targeted for the first time. Two churches were in the viewfinder of the individual.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n
Valls said that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153specific protection\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is being provided to 178 Catholic places of worship. <\/p>\n
To attack a church is to attack \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a symbol of France,” the premier said. “The terrorists probably still wanted to hit the heart to divide and destroy. The answer is the gathering, is unity. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s democracy, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the living together and that is the ability to respond as the French have done on January 11.<\/p>\n
“The faithful of the Catholic religion,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he continued, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153must be able to worship, go to Mass in perfect serenity. Moreover, it is the most beautiful and strongest of the answers we need to terrorism, which targets France to divide\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 . France has a great Christian heritage. Cathedrals, churches, chapels, attract tourists, pilgrims, thousands of the faithful around the world. This heritage must be protected, but must remain open, accessible.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Manuel Valls emphasizes Catholic culture of France and warns of division. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not the kind of sentiment one would expect to hear from the leader of a nation that prides itself on its history of secularism. But in the wake of a thwarted terrorist attack on churches in France this past weekend, Prime Minister Manuel […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-982","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.latinliturgy.org\/phila\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}