Although not new, it\u2019s got French media talking \u2014 and digging into the prime minister\u2019s past before politics, when he toyed as a teenager with the idea of becoming a monk.<\/p>\n
Le Monde and other French publications say Lecornu\u2019s way of greeting people \u2014 mostly men, but sometimes women, too \u2014 with soft temple-to-temple bumps stems from time he spent at Saint-Wandrille Abbey, a community of about 30 Benedictine monks in the Normandy region northwest of Paris.<\/p>\n
The naturally discreet Lecornu, citing reasons both personal and professional, has said he finds it difficult to talk publicly about what attracted him to the possibility of joining them.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t like to talk about it, but it\u2019s true,\u201d he said, drawing a deep breath, when asked in 2024 on France\u2019s Television\u2019s \u201cQuelle \u00e9poque !\u201d chat show whether it was accurate that he had considered becoming a Benedictine monk.<\/p>\n
The host, L\u00e9a Salam\u00e9, quickly followed up.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat moved you above all is the manner the monks have of greeting each other, forehead to forehead,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cOh, not just that,\u201d replied the then-defense minister.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had a moment in my adolescent life, a period of discernment, as we say, but which is a very intimate period. I don\u2019t really like talking about that because, for one, I represent the state as a minister and the state is neutral. And so I am a great defender of secularism.\u201d<\/p>\n
He then added: \u201cSince you asked me the question: Yes, when I was 16.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Benedictines are a spiritual family of mostly contemplative monks that is considered the oldest religious order in the Latin rite Catholic Church. It dates to 529 AD and follows the Rule governing monastic life attributed to St. Benedict of Norcia.<\/p>\n
Catholic priests do variations of the temple-to-temple greeting when exchanging the sign of peace at Mass. Often, they grab one another\u2019s forearms and lean in, side to side in a modified kiss-kiss greeting that avoids touching and almost resembles a fashionista air kiss.<\/p>\n
When Lecornu took office on Wednesday, greeting government colleagues at a handover of power at Matignon, the office of France\u2019s premiers, he gave traditional two-cheeked \u201cbises\u201d kisses to female colleagues, including Catherine Vautrin, the labor minister in the outgoing government, and Rachida Dati, who served as culture minister.<\/p>\n
But male colleagues, including outgoing Foreign Minister Jean-No\u00ebl Barrot, got temple-to-temple bumps from the new government boss who has yet to name his new Cabinet.<\/p>\n
Lecornu also gave a temple-to-temple greeting to senior presidential aide Patrice Faure at a meeting that evening.<\/p>\n
Jean-Louis Langlois, a civilian volunteer at the more than 1,300-year-old Saint-Wandrille Abbey, told The Associated Press on Friday that the temple-to-temple contact is called an accolade.<\/p>\n
\u201cTilting your head to the right, and the temple touches that of the other, on the side of the face, at the moment when we exchange a sign of peace,\u201d said Langlois, who hasn\u2019t met Lecornu.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is a very beautiful gesture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Rev. Philippe Nouzille, a French Benedictine monk in Rome, said: \u201cI knew nothing about this part of our new Prime Minister\u2019s past.\u201d<\/p>\n
The greeting \u201cis common in monasteries, at least in France,\u201d Nouzille said. \u201dWe do it when we welcome a monk from another monastery, or a monk from the same monastery who has been away for a long time, or when it\u2019s someone\u2019s feast day, or during the sign of peace at Mass.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014-<\/p>\n
Associated Press Vatican correspondent Nicole Winfield in Rome and Jeffrey Schaeffer in Paris contributed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Although not new, it\u2019s got French media talking \u2014 and digging into the prime minister\u2019s past before politics,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":419673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5309],"tags":[13744,2000,299,36,4179,285,8547,17986,263],"class_list":{"0":"post-419672","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-france","8":"tag-catholic-church","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-france","12":"tag-general-news","13":"tag-politics","14":"tag-religion","15":"tag-teens","16":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115193956534953204","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}