HOW TO BRING YOUNG PEOPLE BACK TO THE CATHOLIC CHURCH? INSTEAD OF BRINGING THEM CLOSER TO GOD IN CHURCH, IT’S BETTER TO OPEN A…BAR. THIS IS THE IDEA OF THE CHURCH IN LILLE THAT THANKS TO CHURCH FUNDS HAS OPENED "BAR CANA"

Ligabue, the Italian rock star from the Emilia region that was a hit in the 90s, sang: “Do you have a minute God? No, because I’m up here. If you come down here, I’ll offer you a drink”. Turning the sense of the song around, the Catholic Church in Lille, in northern France, has opened a bar: “Bar Cana”.
They believe that young people are more willing to have a drink on Saturday night rather than go to Mass on Sunday morning.
“Essentially it is an attempt to reach young people and those who have never considered the idea of entering a church. Maybe”, Benjamin Florin, one of the promoters of the project, explained to "Wine Searcher" (www.wine-searcher.com), “it is easier to go to a bar”. Of course, it is difficult to avoid thinking that the type of interaction among young people in a bar on Saturday night, probably, would not exactly sit well during Mass the next morning.
The name of the bar refers to the wedding at Cana, where Jesus is said to have performed his first miracle, turning water into wine. Pope Francis inspired "Bar Cana", because since he was elected he has talked about a Church existing and speaking not in the usual places of worship but bringing pastoral activity to the people. So, after two years of planning and church funding, the opening of Bar Cana was welcomed with a blessing, among beers obviously produced in the abbey, jugs of "Madonna" water and biblical quotations on the walls. The only thing missing is a few bottles of Châteauneuf-du-Pape...