Paul from Paris

An article in Le Figaro (in French) caught my eye. Superficially about a "crisis of vocations" among European Catholics, it made some super points about European demographics and Europe's place in the world:

• About 100 Catholics priests are ordained every year in France, down from a postwar high of 999 ordinations in 1951 (or 575 in 1960);
• In France, 14,816 priests were in service in 2007, of whom 11,538 were aged 60 or older.
• Poland is the country (worldwide) that ordains the most priests, averaging 500 ordinations per year. In Europe, 29% of those ordained in 2007 were Polish.
• If you compare ordinations in 2007 with those in 1969, by continent:
  • Europe fell 36.5%
  • Oceania fell 45.5%
  • North America fell 57%
  • Asia rose 115%
  • Latin America rose 320%
  • Africa rose 666%
• Despite these worldwide trends, much of the developing world seems to be "underserved":
  • 1 priest per 1,435 European Catholics,
  • 1 priest per 7,155 Catholics in Latin America.

The article in Le Figaro marshals a lot of data. My only regret is that the sources are attributed, very generally, to the French Church and the Holy See.

Nicolas Sarkozy addressed a joint session of parliament at the Versailles palace yesterday. This was a first by a French president in over a century. Sarkozy seems to have taken a cue from American state of the union speeches (that American presidents are constitutionally required to make each year), but I found the ambiance more like a commencement (graduation) address at a university: an assembly excited but bored; a speaker grandiose and a touch pompous; a memorable decor and orchestration.

Sarkozy made five takeaway points:

1. 1. Change! It’s coming. Sarkozy’s bringing it. This point was borrowed, fully and unapologetically, from the Obama playbook.
   2. Crisis. It’s here. There’s an odd disconnect in France, with plenty of bad economic news, but people who seem at least to be putting on a bright face. Sarkozy demonstrated an awareness of the gravity of the situation.
   3. Big bond issuance. The times call for dramatic action. Sarkozy launched a major bond issuance, targeting French savers.
   4. No new taxes. Sarkozy didn’t ask the parliamentarians to read his lips, but he did swear off tax increases.
   5. No austerity. Spending will be commensurate with the challenges confronting France.

Sarkozy’s strongest words were reserved for another topic: should France outlaw the burka (the burka is a loose, full-body garment covering its wearer head to toe, worn by some Muslim women)? Sarkozy had strong words (my translation, emphasis in original text):

Sarkozy is not alone in his opposition to the burka. Fadela Amara, the current minister of housing, a progressive, a blogger, and the former head of activist organization Ni putes, ni soumises (“Neither whores nor doormats”), is “in favor of a full prohibition of the burka in our country.” André Gerin, a mayor and MP and communist party member, proposed a parliamentary commission to investigate the issue. His proposal has received parliamentary support across the political spectrum, including now from president Sarkozy.

Mainstream media, especially what the French call the “Anglo-Saxon” press, has misread into Sarkozy’s opposition to the burka an intolerance of religious freedom or a discomfort with Muslims. Neither of these arguments holds up. And the women’s-equality justification seems to go unreported outside of France. Far from seeking to divide, Sarkozy is actually using the burka as a foil to seek consensus. When he spoke of the burka, Sarkozy was trying to seek common ground, understood in four ways:

1. What we hold in common, part of national identity, common to all French people;
2. Something parliamentarians of all political stripes can agree on;
3. A preoccupation of the ordinary citizen or the common man, not just Parisians or government technocrats;
4. An everyday concern, something actually seen in the street, not an abstraction like the national debt.

The Gallup organization did a major, international survey of religiosity. Gallup pollsters asked this question:

The results show Americans to be more religious than the French: 65% of Americans surveyed answered in the affirmative, compared to 25% of French respondents.

Conventional wisdom says that Americans are outwardly religious and that the French are deeply secular. The Gallup survey seems to support this conventional view.

The results for Americans actually turn to out to be more diverse than the average percentage. Religiosity spans a range, with “yes” votes climbing to 85% in Mississippi or 82% in Alabama, but falling to 46% in New Hampshire or 42% in Vermont. But all states in the United States showed affirmative answers far above French responders.

The question asked blots some important differences. As Gallup points out, the results “say nothing about what being highly religious means in different parts of the world and among different faiths.”

Gallup takes care in crafting questions used in surveys, but some aspects of the question give pause:

• In some parts of the world –such as Egypt, which scored a 100% affirmative answer– strong cultural pressures may promote or even require an outwardly religious lifestyle. For these people, the question may have been akin to, “Are you patriotic?” or “Do you love your spouse?”
• In other parts of the world, such as France, the question may be socially inappropriate. French secularism is rooted and attached to the idea that religion is a matter of personal conviction, and hence is a private affair. Replying in the negative may be a polite way to convey to a stranger that this is not an appropriate subject for casual conversation.
• In a similar way, the “important” qualifier may lead respondents, including sincerely religious people, to answer “no” out of modesty or the belief that it is polite or socially better not to show pride in religious practice.
• The “daily life” qualifier may have deflated affirmative responses, depending on styles of religious practice, especially if respondents think of visible practice instead of personal conviction. Attending church every Sunday may have skewed to “no” answers, if the respondent focuses on church attendance (and only on church attendance).
• Especially in post-religious countries –I’m thinking of France and the UK– practices that elsewhere would be thought of as religious or expressions of religiosity may be thought of as secular. in other words, the perimeter between religious life and secular life may not be the same in the USA and in the UK. Examples would include concern for the homeless or the environment.

Whatever the limits or shortcomings of the question, thanks to Gallup for contributing this data to the public square and providing an impetus for others to find out more.

February 2 marks Groundhog Day in the USA and Chandeleur in France.

Americans eagerly await for a groundhog to emerge from is burrow in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, its behavior thought to divine whether winter will soon end or continue for six more weeks. (This was featured in the movie Groundhog Day.)

In France, people make and eat crêpes (thin pancakes) to mark chandeleur. (I don’t think this has been featured in a movie, but everyone knows when it happens.)

For the longest time, I hadn’t the faintest idea what this was all about. It turns out that chandeleur and Groundhog Day share a long and rich history.

Chandeleur is known in English-speaking countries as Candlemas. Whether in French or English, the name harkens to candles and is rooted in long-forgotten pagan rites.

The pagan name was picked up and reused to designate a Christian festival that falls 40 days after Christmas and that marks the end of the Christmas and Epiphany seasons.

Formally known as the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, it marks an episode described in the Gospel according to Luke. In today’s secular France, this church history is forgotten. People who know it probably have a priest (or nun) in the family, because it’s a day when clergy are consecrated.

The Gospel passage includes an encounter with a fellow named Simeon. “Waiting for the consolation of Israel”, Simeon believed that he would see the messiah before he died. Rembrandt painted this scene three times, in three different ways, in 1628, 1631, and 1669; apparently, it’s the last painting Rembrandt painted. (I’m thrilled to have made this serendipitous discovery.)

What’s the connection with pancakes? It’s tenuous, but apparently isn’t pagan. As best as I can follow, Candlemas had been used to mark an agricultural event: the beginning of winter sowing. The hopeful expectation of a future harvest encouraged people to use stocked flour to make pancakes.

Remarkably, Candlemas is also the ancestor of Groundhog Day. In parts of –German-speaking– Europe, Candlemas also maked the time when bears awoke from hibernation and wolves poked out from their lairs; if they went back, more bad weather was rumored to be in store. Across the Atlantic, a groundhog or marmot took the place of the wolf or bear.