Jean-Pierre Ricard was born in Marseille on 26 September 1944. After philosophy at Marseille's seminary and a year of national service in Mali, he was ordained a priest on 5 October 1968 and spent twenty-five years in Marseille parishes. In 1993 he became auxiliary bishop of Grenoble, in 1996 Bishop of Montpellier, and on 21 December 2001 Archbishop of Bordeaux — a post he held until 2019. From 2001 to 2007 he was president of the French bishops' conference.
Benedict XVI created him a cardinal on 24 March 2006, with the title of Sant'Agostino, and he served on the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and the Council for the Economy. His book Les Sept Défis pour l'Église (2003) surveyed the Church's challenges. His motto is Propter Evangelium — “for the sake of the Gospel.”
Major Works & Initiatives
Archbishop of Bordeaux
Eighteen years in the primatial see of Aquitaine.
President of the French bishops
Led the conference at the start of the Sarkozy years.
Les Sept Défis pour l'Église
His book on the Church's seven challenges.
Controversies
The 2022 admission
In November 2022 Ricard announced that, as a parish priest in the 1980s, he had “behaved in a reprehensible way with a 14-year-old girl,” causing her “serious and lasting consequences”; he said he had asked the victim and her family for forgiveness. He withdrew from all public ministry and put himself at the disposal of civil and ecclesiastical justice. Criminal proceedings were dropped in February 2023 when the statute of limitations expired; the Holy See then restricted his exercise of ministry for five years.