Between a trip to India on September 9-10 to attend the G20 summit and a visit to France by Charles III of the United Kingdom on September 20-22 ahead of a visit of Pope Francis on September 22-23, the trip was meant to be a quiet moment of "proximity" for the French president, a juncture of harmony with the so-called France of steeples, the one that worries at sight of its village churches falling into decay. Visiting Semur-en-Auxois and Bussy-Rabutin, Burgundy, on Friday, September 15, Emmanuel Macron appealed to the nation's generosity by launching a fundraising campaign to restore religious buildings needing repair.

But the anouncement did not come without its share of controversy. When Macron reached Semur-en-Auxois at around midday, the streets were sparsely populated as a result of drastic traffic restrictions. Alain Houpert, a French local senator affiliated with the conservative party Les Républicains, said on X (formerly Twitter) that he would ignore the visit, which, he said, no longer carried any "republican" features. A few dozen citizens had been safely tucked away from the journalists in a corner of Semur-en-Auxois' church square that Macron had come to visit. He received a few cheers, and an isolated hoot, before greeting the crowd and entering the church with his wife Brigitte, French television host Stéphane Bern, who's been appointed to safegard France's endangered heritage, and local representatives.

The coincidence of this presidential outing with the Pope's forthcoming visit could be interpreted as an attempt by Macron to send a message to Catholics. When leaving the church, he felt the need to explain his decision to attend the mass to be celebrated by the pontiff in Marseille on September 23. "It's my responsibility to go," he said, adding he would not be going "as a Catholic" but as the "president of the French Republic, which is indeed secular." He said he would not be "practicing religion" during the mass.

"No, Mr. President, it's not your responsibility to go to the Pope's mass," said Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the leader of the radical-left party La France Insoumise. "To welcome him on arrival and even on departure: yes, of course. But the secular state neither recognizes nor subsidizes any religion."

As for Friday's religious heritage trip, the presidency denied it was related to Pope Francis' arrival. "It's a commitment made on June 5," said an adviser at the Elysée. "It's linked to the European Heritage Days [September 16-17] and in no way to the Pope's visit." On June 5, on the sidelines of a visit to the Catholic site Mont-Saint-Michel, western France, Macron had outlined a national campaign supporting religious heritage.

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