TELEVISION. The famous religious program will be presented today on France 2 and Réunion la 1ère from 1 p.m., live from the church of La Trinité in Saint-Denis. Mass will be celebrated by Bishop Gilbert Aubry.
Twice a year, the team of Lord’s Day travels overseas to attend a Catholic Mass. In 2020, an appointment had already been made in Reunion but, with the Covid crisis, the event had been canceled at the last moment. This time, it’s the right one and, yesterday morning, the technical teams of Réunion la 1ère took over the church of La Trinité, in the capital, to install the filming equipment.
“We are not here to put on a show, just to transmit the mass live, recalls Catherine Pic, the television liturgy officer. The faithful will come to attend the ceremony, presented by Bishop Gilbert Aubry, as an ordinary mass. They will simply be surrounded by cameras.“
The mass will be presented from 1 p.m. on Réunion la 1ère, and, due to the time difference, from 11 a.m. on France 2. The celebration will be very lively, we are told, with the presence of the choir of the parish, Malagasy speakers, nuns who will come to bring wine and bread… To ensure that the event goes off without a hitch, rehearsals took place yesterday afternoon. Some might see a sort of nod to the choice of the church, which once hosted Pope John Paul II during his visit to Reunion, but according to Catherine Pic, the place of worship was simply retained after consultation with the bishop. Today’s ceremony will remain no less symbolic in the eyes of Catholics who will undoubtedly be numerous in front of their small screen.
Up to 800,000 viewers
On average, between 700 and 800,000 viewers follow the PAF’s oldest program every Sunday on TV.
“But the show’s followers are certainly more numerous if we count those who watch us on Facebook live and from our website, supports Catherine Pic. The program is primarily intended for believers who cannot go to church, the elderly, sick, in prison… but also for people in search of spirituality, who can be touched by a word, an image…”
After the mass, the program will offer a half-hour magazine, shot throughout the week in various places in Reunion. The topic discussed? A peaceful island, but still in search of answers about its past marked by slavery. Four artists will follow one another on the screen to evoke the question of memory at the center of their work: the sculptor Marco Ah-Kiem, who seeks to restore their dignity to slaves in his statues; the writer Monique Séverin, who explores the traces of History in Reunionese society through her novels and poems; singer Gwendoline Absalon, who searches for her cultural and spiritual origins in her songs; actor Kristof Langrom, who oversees the transmission of Creole culture through theatre.
NT
* “Le jour du Seigneur” live on Réunion la 1ère, today, from 1 p.m.