Father Michel Gitton, founder of the Aïn-Karem community, initiated a hope project at the end of April by writing the Chartres manifesto. “Faced with the misfortunes that strike our country and the world […] in front of the pandemic which immobilizes our forces and leaves us in a helpless waiting, in front of the sadness of a desolate Church which can not even take care of its children any more, we put all our trust in God and in the intercession of the Saint Virgin Mary, ”he wrote in the preamble.
Signed by fifteen personalities including the bishop of Chartres, Mgr Christory, the bishop of Fréjus-Toulon, Mgr Rey, the philosopher Rémi Brague or Marie-Hélène Mathieu, founder of Faith and Light, this manifesto is the point of the start “of a dynamic of reflection and prayer”, assures Father Gitton to Aleteia. “We had planned that a group of pilgrims will go to the cathedral of Chartres on Sunday May 17 in order to place our prayers at the feet of the Virgin. Unfortunately the prefect of Eure-et-Loir has formally prohibited the thing and asked the l ‘Bishop not to accept anyone in the cathedral in this sense’, he regrets.
