The Sacré-Cœur church was, well before the start of mass, full to bursting on Wednesday October 16. The security recruited for the event was even forced to deny access to the building to several dozen worshipers who had to stay outside, in the light rain. Catholics came from all over Occitania to unite in prayer with the people of Toulouse. Some hold a rosary between their fingers.
At the end of this afternoon, the Archbishop of Toulouse, Mgr Guy de Kerimel, consecrated the city and his diocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, on the feast day of Saint Marguerite-Marie Alacoque and on the occasion of 350 years of the apparitions of Paray-le-Monial.
At the origin of this celebration: the machine show “The Gate of Darkness”, featuring esoteric and satanic symbols, which is to take place from October 25 to 27 in the streets of the Pink City. “The news brings back to us many negative realities” which “promote this atmosphere of despair” and is part of a culture “more and more fascinated by the obscure, the dark”had previously explained Mgr de Kerimel. He confided to The Cross want to present “a positive alternative of hope” after the controversies arising from the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympic Games, and to respond to a context of social divide and conflicts in the world.
“Witnessing to hope”
Faced with an assembly where all ages are represented, the archbishop opposes “darkness of war, of corruption”, “lies and despair”a call to work for “another possible world”. “In a society where violence, exclusion, loneliness, (…); in a society that has lost meaning and allowed itself to be fascinated by darkness, hearts are opening to bear witness to hope”he insists.
He invites the faithful to turn to the heart of Jesus. On the other hand, there is no question of Christians withdrawing into themselves: “Our place is where humanity is in the grip of darkness, facing evil and dark death,” underlines the archbishop
“If we want to win with Christ, if we want the Heart of Jesus to reign over the city and diocese of Toulouse, we must fight the roots of evil and sin in our own hearts”he adds. Before insuring: “the consecration of the city and the diocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is therefore for us an invitation to conversion to show, in our wounded world, something of the new world, born from the pierced Heart of Jesus”.
Consecration
“We are, sometimes rightly, scandalized by evilunderlines Mgr de Kerimel, in an implicit reference to the recent controversy which agitated the city. It is tempting to react in a strong manner, but that would be entering into a logic which is not that of the new creation, it is not that of the Sacred Heart of Jesus..
Several priests and diocesan officials consulted by The Cross have thus refuted any desire to request a ban on the show which will feature the female demon Lilith.
At the end of the homily, the archbishop recited, with the faithful, the prayer of consecration of the city and the diocese, praying that the Sacred Heart of Jesus « y (reign) until the end of time ».
