By Almudena Martínez-Bordiú
ACI Prensa Staff, Dec 16, 2024 / 13:30 pm
When Pope Francis and French President Emmanuel Macron recently met during the pontiff’s visit to Corsica, they engaged in discussions about international concerns and even shared a moment of laughter about the importance of maintaining a sense of humor.
The private meeting, lasting 40 minutes, took place in a room at Ajaccio’s Napoleon Bonaparte Airport, where the two leaders tackled pressing international issues, including conflicts in the Holy Land, Lebanon, and Ukraine.
Both leaders expressed their desire for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and delved into the situation in Syria, advocating for a “just and inclusive” political transition to protect minorities.
During their conversation, Macron gifted the pope with a book about Notre-Dame Cathedral, while Francis reciprocated with papal medals and magisterial documents. The pope also recommended that Macron read his apostolic exhortation Gaudete et Exultate, particularly the passage about St. Thomas More’s prayer for a sense of humor.
“Lord, give me a sense of humor. Grant me the grace to understand a joke, to discover in life a bit of joy, and to be able to share it with others,” reads the prayer, which Pope Francis finds beautiful and recites daily.
The meeting occurred just a week after the reopening of Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, an event the pope chose not to attend. Instead, he oversaw a consistory at the Vatican, where he appointed 21 new cardinals on the same day, Dec. 7.
The brief yet meaningful visit marked Francis’s 47th apostolic journey abroad.
