A call to French people, not to yield in to “fatalism”. It has been made by the French Bishops in a statement posted this morning by the Permanent Council, which, one year before the presidential election of 2017, make some reflections, in 7 points, about this major political event. “Faced with the challenges thrown at our society, the main risk would be to stop fighting for the future and give in to the temptation of fatalism. Too many of our fellow citizens – the Bishops write – have gone so far as to believe that the situation is at a standstill and that no one can set it in motion again. Our country’s resources – economic, human, cultural and spiritual – enable us to reject this fatalism. They actually bind us all to use our discernment and our responsibility for the common good”. The “document” reviews the country’s 7 challenges. The Bishops put democracy and violence at the top of the list, and first and foremost they urge the nominees for the forthcoming election not to “attach too much importance to controversies and accusations” in an election campaign that must not risk creating further “identity-related tensions”. Secondly, the Bishops ask which “social project” the nominees want to pursue. And they warn: “the human quality of a society is judged by the way it treats the weakest of its members: those who are left at the margins of the process of prosperity, the old, the sick, the disabled. We cannot be indifferent to the victims of our society. We are all responsible for respecting every human life, from start to end”. In section 3 about the “educational agreement”, the Bishops ask that “families” not be weakened, as the recent bills of law, which “confuse filiation” or “promote divorce”, are unfortunately doing now. At point 4 about “solidarity”, the Bishops speak of work, in the light of the new employment market law. And they state: “The State must positively handle the balance between uncontrolled liberalism and the protection of welfare mechanisms (health insurance, pensions, unemployment, etc.). Sections 5 and 6 are connected to each other: they are about migration (“Is it tolerable – the Bishops ask – that thousands of men, women and children live in our country in too often inhuman conditions?”) and about Europe, because – the document goes on – “we are well aware that France, alone, cannot solve such dramatic situations”. Lastly, environment, as they remind the nominees that we are all “responsible for the common house”.