to sign : http://chng.it/fjWSPksPGW
The Most Rev Michel Aupetit, Archbishop of Paris, announced on February 7th that he would «from March 1st, 2021, put an end to the mission commissioned in 1975 by [the then Archbishop] Cardinal Marty to the « Pastoral Centre of St Merry’s parish »https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89glise_Saint-Merri, in the heart of Paris. That mission workhttps://recherches-entrecroisees.net/2021/03/04/1975-lettre-de-mission-pour-le-centre-pastoral-halles-beaubourg-par-mgr-f-marty/ consisted of the creation of a space for «experimenting» new ways of evangelization and «inventing new/novel means for Tomorrow’s Church».
The thousands of people from Paris and its surroundings and beyond France’s borders, who have known and loved that unique outcome of the Second Vatican Council within the Church of Paris, which is St Merry’s Pastoral Centre, hereby manifest their shock at such a damaging decision, taken without any consultation.
In a time when the Church is reflecting on synodality and promoting participation, a time when Pope Francis is inviting us to reach to the peripheries, such a counterproductive decision is baffling to us.
For more than 45 years, St Merry’s Pastoral Centre has been a venue where people from Paris and its surrounding area, especially those people who had strayed away from the Church, have found warmth, acceptance and prayer. The thousands of messages – from France and beyond – left on our site are a testament to that.
Are there no novel ways of announcing the Gospel? That is the issue at stake.
We, the Undersigned,
Guy Aurenche, Danielle Mérian, Pietro Pisarra, Jean Verrier, Jacqueline Casaubon, Claude Plettner, Anne-René Bazin, Marianne Grilhé, Claire Saconney, Bernadette Capit, Michel Lahaie, Didier Pény, Marie-Odile et Jean-François Barbier-Bouvet, Nathalie Thillay, Anne Tardy-Planechaud…
proclaim our commitment to St Merry’s Pastoral Centre in Paris. We request that the Centre be allowed to go on with its original mission, and that a dialogue be established, so that this particular face of the Church may continue on with its valuable ministry.
A la découverte des mondes de Marguerite... 
