Pope Francis appointed Mgr. Olivier de Germay as Archbishop of Lyon on October 22, 2020, after accepting the resignation of Cardinal Philippe Barbarin on March 6, 2020.
Aged 60, Bishop of Ajaccio (Corsica), Mgr. de Germay is a member of the Fee for Catechesis and the Catechumenate, in addition to of the “Church and Bioethics” working group, inside the Convention of Bishops of France (CEF). The set up ceremony will happen on Sunday December 20, 2020 at Saint-Jean-Baptiste Cathedral. Mgr. Michel Dubost stays as apostolic administrator of the archdiocese of Lyon till the set up of Bishop de Germay.
Born in 1960 in Excursions (Indre-et-Loire), Olivier de Germay graduated from the Saint-Cyr Particular Army College, in Coëtquidan; he was a parachute officer in 1983. Member of the first Parachute Hussar Regiment, he served within the parachute forces from 1986, in Chad, Central African Republic and Iraq.
All of a sudden discovering his vocation on the age of 30, he confides, he entered the seminary in Paray-le-Monial (Saône-et-Loire) in 1991. Olivier de Germay then pursued theological research on the Pius XI college seminary then on the Catholic Institute of Toulouse, on the French Seminary in Rome, and on the John Paul II Pontifical Institute.
Ordained priest on Could 17, 1998 for the Archdiocese of Toulouse, he was vicar then parish priest of Castanet, in Haute-Garonne, from 1999 to 2006, diocesan chaplain of the Guides de France (1999-2001), dean of the “Banlieues-Sud” space of Toulouse (2003-2006). Episcopal vicar in 2004, he was appointed parish priest of Beauzelle (2006-2012), professor of sacramental theology and the household on the Catholic Institute of Toulouse (2008-2012); Dean of Blagnac (2009-2012). Bishop de Germay was appointed Bishop of Ajaccio in 2012.
Mgr. Emmanuel Gobilliard, auxiliary bishop of Lyon, greeted the information with enthusiasm. Responding to questions from the I.MEDIA company, he sees Bishop de Germay as “a person completely within the spirit of the Gospel,” imbued with “gentleness and really nice humility.”
He might be a “rock for the Lyonnais devoted,” he considers, “as a result of he has nice depth and an distinctive rectitude.”
Bishop Olivier de Germay is a “man of presidency,” confirms one other French prelate, and is “very centered on bioethical questions,” he emphasizes. On this theme, “he at all times spoke accurately; he’s a type of who, with out being too talkative, makes clear and marked statements.” In response to him, the brand new archbishop of Lyon “constitutes a wonderful appointment,” as a result of he’s very “in a position to dialogue with folks of varied sensibilities.” The longer term will inform.
