French Christians are looking forward to an easing of restrictions on Christmas ceremonies after Catholic bishops won an emergency court appeal to relax the lockdown rules around public religious services.
Mass attendance picked up last week after the bishops convinced France’s top administrative court to rule that the surprisingly low limit of 30 worshippers per service, declared on 24 November, was “disproportionate” because it applied equally to small chapels and large cathedrals.
The Conseil d’État ordered a swift response from the government, which announced looser limits on 2 December. Churches can now welcome masked worshippers in every second row of pews with social distancing between them.
Christian leaders expect the government, trying to loosen limits step-by-step to allow more attendance at Christmas services, to make a further conciliatory gesture after it shocked them with the strict limits last month. But France may tighten guidelines once again after New Year’s celebrations are passed.
Prime Minister Jean Castex said he hoped to loosen the rules a bit for Christmas, but Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin – who is responsible for relations with religions – said the situation would be reviewed before 15 December.
“This Advent season ... is a path to Christmas,” the bishops conference said after the looser limits were announced. “Catholic communities hope with all their hearts to be able to celebrate the great mystery of the faith in the churches on the evening of the 24th, with the least possible restriction” and respect for health precautions.
Other faiths seemed less pleased with the rule suited to the Catholic majority, the only one to appeal the strict official limit. Some smaller faiths that tend to have more crowded services politely differed but did not reject the new guidelines.
“The government seems to presuppose that services are necessarily held sitting down,” said a spokesman for the evangelical Protestant community. Muslim leaders said they would have to mark off spaces on mosque floors with tape.
Pope Francis has taken a cautious approach to Christmas, planning to say Midnight Mass and give his traditional Urbi et Orbi blessing before small congregations plus cameras to broadcast them worldwide.
At the 28 November consistory, newly created Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Synod of Bishops, said the pandemic challenged Catholics to rethink their ways. He explained this in an earlier interview with the Jesuit biweekly La Civiltà Cattolica: “In the situation that prevented the celebration of the sacraments, we did not realize that there were other ways in which to experience God.”
Meanwhile, Notre Dame cathedral in Paris will present a concert by its choir on Christmas Eve, the first time they will have sung in the building since a blaze gutted it in April 2019.
The concert will be held before and after the broadcast of Pope Francis’ Midnight Mass at the Vatican. There will be no audience present but the event will be covered by state television and the Catholic KTO network and hosted by star TV presenter Stéphane Bern.
This will be the first concert inside the building since the blaze, with 20 choir singers, two soloists and a mobile organ brought in for the occasion. The choir, which used to perform up to 60 concerts per year in Notre Dame, now sings in other large Paris churches while repair work continues in the cathedral.
“It is a highly symbolic Christmas concert for the Notre Dame choir, marked by emotion and the hope of being able to once again make the voices of singers resonate in the cathedral,” the communique announcing the concert said.
Notre Dame is not due to reopen until 2024, but Paris Archbishop Michel Aupetit has occasionally scheduled strictly limited events inside to highlight its continuing role as the city’s cathedral.