The plan was that, at 8am on Sunday, 35 men dressed in orange sashes and black bowler hats would march up a street in Portadown, in Northern Ireland. By 8.30, it was supposed to be over. Now, the planned march, which never took place, has become a stand-off that threatens to bring down Norther Ireland’s provincial government. The controversy has also reopened a tension between the town’s Catholic nationalists and Protestant loyalists that’s been contained for almost three decades.
AND
France is a country that, since the early 20th century, has built its politics and civil life around a strict practice of secularism. The law even bans the wearing of crosses and other religious symbols in some public institutions. So how much of a shock has it been to see Pope Leo draw massive crowds during his brief visit to France? An estimated 800,000 people turned out to see him in Paris. And does it suggest a religious revival in a country where only about 5% of people attend church each week?
GUESTS:
Professor Dominic Bryan is a specialist in politics and religion at Queens University in Belfast.
Professor Charles Mercier specialises in public religion at the School of Advanced Studies in Paris.
This program was recorded and produced on the lands of the Gadigal People of the Eora Nation
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