The Archbishop of Toulouse, Bishop Guy de Kerime, has consecrated the southwestern French city to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, ahead of a controversial street performance featuring “satanic” imagery taking place next weekend.
“If we want the Heart of Jesus to reign over the city and the Archdiocese of Toulouse, we must fight against the roots of evil and sin in our own hearts, seek, with the grace of God, humility, flee from indifference, renounce to violence, work for justice, be artisans of peace, seek purity of heart, be servants of mercy, accept suffering contradiction,” he reflected the archbishop during his homily at the consecration Mass on October 16.
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The archbishop’s decision to consecrate the city and archdiocese comes ahead of the city-funded musical production, titled “The Door to Darkness” (“The Gate of Darkness”), which is the second part of a similar performance that took place in 2018.
The Sacred Heart of Jesus, the prelate emphasized to those present at the consecration, “is the most eloquent revelation of the victory of divine love manifested by Jesus, son of God and son of man, died for our sins and risen from the dead. for our salvation.”
Because of the passion of Christ, the archbishop said, “love is not dead,” and Christians can have “open hearts to witness hope” in the midst of darkness.
“The consecration of the city and the Archdiocese to the Sacred Heart of Jesus is, therefore, for us an invitation to conversion to show, in our wounded world, something of the new world, born from the pierced heart of Jesus,” he stated.
Produced by François Delarozière, a French artist and director of the street theater company La Machine, this year’s performance sparked controversy when it was revealed that the city-wide immersive opera would include “satanic” imagery. An imposing mechanical representation of Lilith, a demonic figure in Judaism, will be on display, along with the cross of Satan, the Sigil of Lucifer and the mark of the beast, which are supposed to represent the “three prodigious signs” that Lilith will gather during the performance to open the gates of hell.
Over the past few months, advertisements for the performance — spread on social media and taped to tram windows across the city — have featured the statue of Lilith alongside images of burning churches, a red demonic figure with the head of a calf and numerous walking skeletons.
The imposing mechanical representation of the demonic half of a woman was originally built for an international metal music festival called “Hellfest” in the French region of Brittany last summer.
Delarozière, in an interview with AFP, denied claims that the performance contains satanic elements, stating that the story is really “about love, death, life and the afterlife, with the great myths that have spanned the centuries.” .
“We all have the right to say what we want and what we think,” he added, “but we do not have the right to censor or ban.”
Translated and adapted by the ACI Prensa team. Originally published in CNA.
Low tide Elhabbal
Madalaine Elhabbal is a CNA journalist based in EWTN’s Washington DC bureau. She has published articles on CatholicVote and has also worked as a foreign language assistant in France. She is a graduate of Benedictine College.