- Cardinal Barbarin said goodbye this Sunday morning at the diocese of Lyon.
- Released by the Lyon Court of Appeal in January for non-reporting of sexual assaults on minors, the prelate had resigned in the process.
- He will now join the diocese of Rennes as chaplain.
For seventeen years, he directed the diocese of Lyon. This Sunday, Archbishop Philippe Barbarin said "goodbye" to the faithful, before beginning a new life as a simple chaplain after the storm caused by his silences in the face of pedophilia.
"I can today, after four difficult years, say thank you to a lot of people" for the "prayers, attentions and delicacies", said the Archbishop Emeritus, that justice had released on appeal in January.
400 faithful gathered in the primatiale Saint-Jean
By 10:30 a.m., some 400 people, mostly masked, had taken their places inside Saint-Jean Cathedral, located in the Vieux-Lyon district and whose places had been limited due to the health context.
At Covid hour, they lent themselves to compulsory hand washing with hydroalcoholic gel before being invited to sit on plastic chairs, in place of century-old wooden benches. Contactless payment was available for the quest. For the other faithful, the Thanksgiving Mass was broadcast live on the YouTube video platform.
It was the diocesan apostolic administrator, Mgr Michel Dubost, who welcomed Cardinal Barbarin, who arrived in great pomp in his prelate clothes, with a miter and a bishop's butt.
"A long ordeal"
"It seemed impossible to me that you leave the diocese without being solemnly thanked," he said to the 69-year-old prelate who renounced the title of primate of Gaul in March and whose successor must still to be announced.
Some local personalities joined this tribute, including the former centrist Keeper of the Seals Michel Mercier, the Vice-President of the Etienne Blanc region (LR), the industrialist Alain Mérieux or even the rector of the Great Mosque of Lyon Kamel Kabtane.
With the jerky phrasing that characterizes him, Cardinal Barbarin thanked Mgr Dubost for the choice of "this so beautiful date" of Saint-Irénée (the second bishop of Lyon) for this "goodbye".
In his homily, he modestly returned to the period of his trial in 2019 for his silences on the pedophile actions of an ex-priest of his diocese, Bernard Preynat, referring to "a long ordeal". “A great drama had happened in the diocese of Lyon. I had to bear this suffering unquestionably and make it right before the courts, and at the same time I knew that I was not alone, ”said the cardinal.
On the way to Brittany
At the end of the celebration, which lasted nearly two hours, Philippe Barbarin received with a smile several gifts including a pectoral cross and a book of thanks. An online kitty was opened to offer him more.
"Let us pray that the Word of God will continue its course", concluded with thunderous applause the man of the Church, who is expected as chaplain of the mother house of the Little Sisters of the Poor in Saint-Pern (Ille- et-Vilaine).
"My real vocation is to be a priest," said Thursday on RCF Lyon radio, Bishop Barbarin, ensuring that he welcomed "with joy" a return to calm after the storm.
He also mentioned for the future possible missions abroad, especially in the Middle East.
“It was a very beautiful mass and a magnificent homily of Archbishop Barbarin like most of his homilies who carry us, touch us and speak to us from the bottom of our hearts. As his look. We are all very touched to see him leave because he is an exceptional man, ”said“ very moved ”Cécile Fakhri, 50, wiping her tears from the cathedral square.
Same echo for her neighbor, Joëlle Ethevenaux, the sixties, for whom Philippe Barbarin is "someone good", "humble" but "who speaks with his guts". "I think there is a time for everything but I regret that he leaves so quickly. He could have stayed longer. ”
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