--- title: Cardinal Aveline urges resistance and hope in Lausanne theology event url: https://www.faithfulnews.com/en/cardinal-aveline-urges-resistance-and-hope-in-lausanne-theology-event published: 2026-10-09T15:49:17+00:00 language: en section: World Church source: https://cath.ch/newsf/resistance-et-esperance-lavenir-de-leglise-selon-le-cardinal-aveline-2026-10-06 organizations: Vaudois Society of Theology, Lausanne Faculty of Theology, Catholic Church, Archdiocese of Marseille, Bishops' Conference of France publisher: FaithfulNews --- # Cardinal Aveline urges resistance and hope in Lausanne theology event Rather than drawing plans for the future of Christianity, Jean-Marc Aveline prefers to pose the question differently: 'How to inhabit the future of the world as a Christian?' It is more important to reread what one has lived through to discern the important things and to respond to calls. Before some 250 people gathered in the aisles of Lausanne Cathedral, the cardinal's voice called for resistance against everything that degrades the human being and for hope in a God who draws near. The courage to say no to idols The first word retained by Jean-Marc Aveline is that of ambiguity. From the origins Christians inserted into a deeply religious society were strangely labeled atheists. Contesting the validity of Greco-Roman polytheism, Christians, like Jews, distinguish themselves by their refusal of idols to which sacrifices must be offered. It is this that will earn them persecutions. Ambiguity is therefore situated between Christianity and traditional religion. The question does not spare the contemporary world, Christianity is in opposition to the ideology of secular religions such as capitalism or nationalism. The Church herself does not escape this temptation either. Both history and actuality manifest how the pretension to absoluteness, the nostalgia for a largely fantasized hegemony can transform Christianity into yet another idol, pursues Jean-Marc Aveline. One risks confusing the absoluteness of God and the absoluteness of the institution. This is the source of many abuses that can be declined even today. Invited by the Vaudois Society of Theology Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille and President of the Bishops' Conference of France, was passing through Lausanne, invited by the Vaudois Society of Theology. Linked in particular to the Lausanne Faculty of Theology with professor Pierre Gisel with whom he has led various academic works, the prelate joined for a few hours the shores of Lake Geneva the day after Pope Leo XIV's visit to France. Against this temptation of idolatry, the cardinal proposes three antidotes: The prophet who 'speaks what God sees' who calls for justice and is found in all religions. Generally, they are not well received. The second is the mystic who says that 'union with God is higher than the walls' erected between men. The third antidote is the figure of the theologian who invokes reason on the terrain of faith. A religion that dispensed with the help of reason could quickly sink into superstition. Christianity is not a 'system of values' Another similar pitfall in the eyes of Jean-Marc Aveline: the idea that Christianity is simply a 'system of values' before a secularized society. This discourse on values ultimately pushes God aside and even more so an incarnate and crucified God. One then arranges with a 'God on option'. Christianity would consist of a set of moral concepts, socially useful. On the contrary, by Christianity one can also designate a sort of culture or counter-culture before a fundamentally bad society. It thus becomes an auxiliary or alibi of an identity and nationalist project. For Cardinal Aveline, this temptation is not dead, it even knows a renewed vigor. Yet Christianity is on the contrary a force of freedom which sometimes requires paying a high price. The second questioning is that of perplexity: 'What is the path?' In a neo-liberal context with its ruthless market, is Christianity condemned to convince of its right to exist, to survive? Is it a lost cause? Must one resign oneself to a future without religion and without metaphysics? The task is new and difficult, recognizes the cardinal. It must be attacked with seriousness and depth. To answer this, Jean-Marc Aveline invokes the term responsibility. More than ever, it is about being the voice of the voiceless. It is the attitude of Jesus to listen to those one wants to silence. What we confess is not so much the search for man's paths to God as God's paths to man. This is the whole originality of the Christian revelation. To this end Jean-Marc Aveline invites a personal re-reading. 'How did God proceed with me, with what delicacy, with what patience?' Participating in the divine nature, that is the only future that counts and the Church is at the service of this objective, which concerns every man well beyond its borders. According to what the Gospel of John (3,16) says: 'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.' One can thus get out of useless questions about the institution, suggests the cardinal. The Church does not have its center of gravity in itself. Living this decentralization is demanding. It is about letting oneself be converted by the Gospel as the salt of the earth and the light of the world. This is what gives Christians and the Church their greatest freedom, their greatest assurance about the future. Fortified by this reflection, the cardinal concluded with a few pastoral remarks. The first consists in letting oneself be provoked by the novelty of catechumens in France and elsewhere in Europe. Seeing only a guarantee of survival would be merely a superficial view. In fact, we are not responsible for much. These persons, mostly young, often arrive from unforeseen ways, social networks, search for identity, pressure from a certain Islam, ecological concerns... Welcoming them is a responsibility before God. The second remark, which applies especially to France, is the risk of a Church not diverse enough sociologically according to the principle those who resemble each other assemble. This also implies taking care of the link between faith and life.