This Ascension Thursday is traditionally a holiday for all French people. But for Christians, it is much more than that ... It is a very important religious holiday in the liturgical calendar of Catholics, Protestants and Orthodox. So important that, despite the separation of Church and State, it has historically become a day of rest for all, in order to be able to attend services.
Except that today, there will be no office, confinement requires…
Yes, since all places of worship of all religions have been closed since mid-March. It was a decision that had fueled many debates, many believers stressing that, in a period as difficult as confinement, and faced with the danger of death spread by the virus, the practice of religion, of religions, could represent a essential moral aid. And this debate became intense when, despite the deconfinement, from May 11, the government maintained the ban on worship. A decision quite incomprehensible, moreover: one could return to the hypermarkets, take the train, the subway, the children could return to class, but one could not, Catholics, Jews, Moslems, meet to celebrate his God. By respecting of course the barrier gestures…
Precisely, the Council of State sanctioned this decision of the government ...
Yes, in very harsh terms: "disproportionate" ban, "serious and manifestly unlawful interference" with freedom of worship, the government has received an injunction (again a very dry term), to replace its device with more flexible measures . It is not the first time since the start of confinement that the government has been slapped on the fingers by the administrative judge for having trampled on some fundamental freedoms. Just a few days ago, for example, it banned the use of drones to monitor the conditions of deconfinement in the streets of Paris. This is obviously a subject of quite different importance, but the substance is the same: the state of health emergency cannot justify everything. France is a state of law, and even in time of war, citizens must be protected against a form of confiscation of their rights and their freedom. With hindsight, it is also astonishing that the government did not have the subtlety to understand that at the time of the deconfinement, if it restored almost all the freedom of movement, it could also restore the freedom to practice its religion.
In any case, the government has until Monday to publish a new rule for frequenting places of worship ...
Yes, it will not be done today, for this Christian holiday that is the Ascension. It was however quite simple to organize. Who knows: maybe a little meanness on the side of the Ministry of the Interior, which is also that of worship. Come on, no problem: for Catholics, meanness is just a venial sin ...