Lyon: the Pope appoints Bishop Olivier de Germay to succeed Cardinal Barbarin

The Saint-Jean cathedral and the basic Notre-Dame-de-Fourvière in Lyon, whose diocese is now headed by Mgr de Germay.

AP Photo / Laurent Cipriani

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Pope Francis appointed this Thursday Bishop Olivier de Germay, until then Bishop of Ajaccio, to succeed Cardinal Barbarin.

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This is the epilog of the Barbarin affair.

The seat of the Primate of Gaul is no longer vacant.

Bishop Olivier de Germay has just been appointed head of the diocese of Lyon.

Its installation will take place on December 20.

In the meantime, the apostolic administrator of the diocese, Mgr Michel Dubost, continues to provide the interim, specifies the Conference of Bishops of France in its press release.

He therefore succeeds Cardinal Philippe Barbarin, whose

resignation was accepted

by Pope Francis last March.

Two months earlier, the Lyon Court of Appeal had quashed his six-month suspended sentence imposed at first instance for non-denunciation of pedophile acts committed by Bernard Preynat, a priest of the diocese.

Bishop of Ajaccio for eight years, Olivier de Germay, 60, is a discreet man, little used to the media, who will have to heal the wounds of a diocese shaken by this affair.

Son of a soldier, he was a parachute officer.

He has done more than 200 jumps, especially in Africa.

It was during an external operation that he chose to leave the army to serve the Church.

Trained at the seminary of Paray-le-Monial, at the Catholic Institute of Toulouse and at the French seminary in Rome, he spent fourteen years in the diocese of Toulouse before joining Ile de Beauté in 2012.

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