Relations between the Catholic and Calvinist authorities are excellent in Switzerland, a country where respect for all kinds of beliefs and cultures is lived in a special way. In this context, talks have taken place in recent months between Abbé Pascal Desthieux, Episcopal Vicar of Geneva, and the Calvinist authorities, in which it was agreed to celebrate a Mass in St. Peter's Cathedral on February 29. This is certainly great news for Catholics.
It will be the first Mass after that August 8, 1935, when the celebration of the Eucharist was suspended, and many priests will concelebrate. The President of the Protestant Church of Geneva, Pastor Emmanuel Fuchs, will say a few words of welcome and the ceremony will be presided over by Pascal Desthieux. The Church in Geneva belongs to the Diocese of Fribourg-Lausanne-Geneva and Neuchâtel, with its episcopal see in the Catholic canton of Fribourg. It has been 484 years since the previous Holy Mass.
The cathedral continues today to maintain Protestant worship and is also the place where the official ceremonies of the Council of State and the like are held. Today, the cathedral can be considered as a tourist place visited by numerous people and where on Sunday mornings a worship activity is maintained. Concerts and official events are also held there.
Geneva, without a Calvinist majority
The tourist does not find in his visit any element that could invite to the prayer, although it continues conserving the majesty of a religious temple. On the cold walls, exempt of images and pictures, there are however plaques in which some of the events occurred in these centuries are remembered. On one of them appears in perfect Latin the following text: "In the year 1535, the tyranny of the Roman antichrist having been overthrown and superstition abolished, the Holy religion of Christ has been restored in its purity...". A large altar presides over the central nave and is empty, although it occasionally contains a large Bible. In a discreet place there is a simple armchair with the indication "The altar is empty". "Calvin's Chair".
Today, the population of Geneva is no longer mainly Calvinist. As a result of the job opportunities in this country, many people have come from other places with a Catholic tradition, such as Italy, Latin America, Portugal, France and Spain. Geneva today is home to people of 190 different nationalities, largely because it is the seat of several international organizations such as the United Nations (UN), Human Rights, Humanitarian and Refugee Rights, Peace, Disarmament, Security, Economy and Development and Labor... The city has more than 500,000 inhabitants, of whom 180,000 are baptized Catholics, and the Catholic Church administers 52 parishes.
Christian presence before 313
Since the beginning of our era, today's Geneva was part of the Roman Empire. The cult of Jupiter, Mercury, Neptune Cybele, has left remains that we can still observe. We do not have precise data of the coming to this land of the first evangelists, but it could have been before the end of the first century. The ancients moved around a lot; St. Paul's travels bear witness to this. The contacts between Rome and the provinces were continuous thanks to a network of intelligently organized roads and Geneva is located at the crossroads of two important axes of circulation in Western Europe, from north to south and from east to west. Access from Rome could be through the Great St. Bernard Pass across the Alps or from Lyon, where Christians were soon to be found.
We do not know who may have been the first apostle of Geneva, but it is certain that there was a Christian presence before the edict of Milan. There is no record of religious persecutions in this land, in fact no martyrs of those early centuries are venerated, but it seems that there was a bishop, which meant a Christian community.
When in the 4th century the Empire became officially Christian, we find already an ecclesiastical organization in this city and Christian life grows. There is evidence of a double cathedral in the 4th century: one for catechumens with its baptistery by immersion and another for the baptized faithful, and a Christian community of a certain size. The bishop played a fundamental role in the government of the city.
With the fall of the Roman Empire in the West in the 6th century, the Franks settled in Geneva in 443. The cathedral was enlarged and enriched and religious life grew. Later, in the 9th century, under the reign of the Carolingians, Geneva was governed by counts, and in 888 it became part of the kingdom of Burgundy. At this time, several rural parishes were created.
In 1032, Geneva was incorporated into the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire. The religious life in the city and its surroundings continues to grow, preserving the authentic beliefs and under the Pope of Rome. The cathedral remains the center of religious activities, although continuous reforms are necessary, sometimes because of the fires that occur in it, as the tremendous one of 1430, and others to enlarge its capacity.
The Protestant Reformation
In the 16th century, the reform promoted by Luther shocked the whole of Europe. As is well known, this German-born priest promoted a new church in which the Pope of Rome would not have total supremacy, where faith would once again be the main religious engine and in which religious corruption would be annihilated. In his 95 theses, Luther defended the Christian faith as the essential driving force of religion and thus counterposed himself to the modus operandi that the Catholic Church had been carrying out during the Middle Ages.
In Geneva, the initiator of this new current was the French-born pastor Guillaume Farel, who soon succeeded in having the Church of Rome condemned and expelled from the city. On May 21, 1536, in the public square of Geneva, through the institution of theocracy, he succeeded in getting everyone to accept to live in the city. "according to the gospel and the word of God." which opened the door to enormous power: uniting the Gospel with the government.
In a meeting with John Calvin, who was already recognized throughout Europe at the age of 26 for his work on Reformed Christianity, he convinced him to settle in Geneva to help him in the implementation of this new Christian line. And it was mainly Calvin who broke new ground for Protestantism in that city. Endowed with a more logical and rigorous mind than Luther's, Calvin took the fundamental premises of Protestant doctrine to their ultimate consequences.
Calvin in Geneva
Calvinist Protestantism had an enormous welcome in Geneva, where Calvin settled definitively in 1541. At his request, the Council that governed the city prohibited gambling, dancing, swearing and amusements, and ordered to attend the sermon and catechism. All the inhabitants had to promise obedience to the religious authority or leave the city. A council was created, formed by the pastors responsible for celebrating the cult and preaching, who would be the ones who, in practice, would govern the city. Those who did not agree and opposed were punished and many were executed. In five years there were 68 executions in a population of 20,000 souls, among them the Spaniard Servetus. From then on the cathedral, while maintaining the title of St. Peter's Cathedral, became part of Calvin's reformed church and was the main seat of Protestant worship.
On August 8, 1535, after a preaching of Farel defending the Reformation, the iconoclasts destroyed the altars, as well as the images, pictures and ornaments and broke the organs. The magnificent altarpiece by Conrad Witz offered by Bishop François de Metz in 1444 was dismantled and the statues smashed. The Council decided on August 10 to suspend the Mass definitively. The Reformation became official in Geneva on March 21, 1536, and was proclaimed in the cloister of the cathedral.
Calvin's activity in this city was very intense and effective. One of his disciples, the Scotsman John Knox, went so far as to say that the Church of Geneva was the most perfect church in the world. "school of Christ that there has ever been on earth since the days of the apostles." Catholics were persecuted and expelled, and it was not until the 19th century that they obtained some rights.
