In meeting with French PM, Vatican Secretary of State says sacraments must be respected (Vatican News (Italian))

French Prime Minister Jean Castex met with Pope Francis as he visited the Vatican to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the reestablishment of diplomatic relations.

Castex also met with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican’s Secretary of State, who spoke of “a climate of cordiality” that has marked the past century of Vatican-French relations.

Echoing the Pope’s call for a “healthy European secularity” in which “God and Caesar are distinct but not opposed,” Cardinal Parolin told Castex that the Church in France is “even stronger and more determined, in full collaboration with the civil authorities,” to combat sexual abuse, but always “respecting the nature, mission, and sacramental structure of the Church”—a clear reference to the dispute in France over the secrecy of the confessional.