Even in secular France, the Feast of the Assumption is still a major public holiday. This year, it is being marked in a new way with churches in seven dioceses ringing their bells in solidarity with persecuted Christians in the Middle East. At noon today, the bells will toll in all churches in the dioceses of Fréjus-Toulon, Gap and Embrun, Bayonne, Avignon and Digne, Riez and Sisteron in the south, Nancy in the east and Ajaccio in Corsica. Parishioners will assemble outside their churche