Philippe Barbarin was born on 17 October 1950 in Rabat, Morocco, and was ordained a priest on 17 December 1977 for the Diocese of Créteil, France; he holds degrees in philosophy and theology. He served as vicar and student chaplain in Vincennes and Saint-Maur, as parish priest in Boissy-Saint-Léger and diocesan delegate for ecumenism, and as a fidei donum priest lecturing in theology at the major seminary of Fianarantsoa in Madagascar, as well as parish priest of Bry-sur-Marne. On 1 October 1998 St John Paul II nominated him Bishop of Moulins, and he received episcopal ordination on 22 November 1998. He was promoted to the see of Lyon on 16 July 2002; as Archbishop of Lyon he was also chancellor of the Catholic University of Lyon, and the see carries the title Primate of the Gauls.
St John Paul II created him cardinal in the consistory of 21 October 2003, assigning him the titular church of Santissima Trinità al Monte Pincio. He participated in the conclaves of April 2005, which elected Pope Benedict XVI, and March 2013, which elected Pope Francis, and as a cardinal elector in the 2025 conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV. A prominent voice in French public life, he intervened in debates over marriage law and bioethics, worked in Islamic-Christian dialogue — visiting Tibhirine in Algeria with the Imam of Lyon in 2013 — and travelled to Iraq in July 2014 in solidarity with Christians displaced from Mosul and Erbil.
His final years in Lyon were dominated by the case of Bernard Preynat, a priest accused of abusing minors in the archdiocese decades earlier. Barbarin was convicted in March 2019 of failing to report the allegations and given a six-month suspended sentence; the Lyon court of appeal acquitted him on 30 January 2020, and Pope Francis accepted his resignation as Archbishop of Lyon on 6 March 2020, making him Archbishop Emeritus. He later recounted the case in his book En mon âme et conscience. He now serves as chaplain to the Little Sisters of the Poor at Saint-Pern in Brittany and teaches at the Rennes diocesan seminary.
Consequential Quotes
I take note of the Court's decision. Regardless of what happens to me, I reiterate my compassion for the victims and their families, to whom I assure my prayers. I have decided to go to the Holy Father to present my resignation. He will receive me in a few days.
This decision enables the opening of a new chapter. I’m going to hand over my charge as Archbishop of Lyon to the Pope. I’m going to renew my request to him.
Everyone knows marriage is the union between a man and a woman. The parliaments of the 21st century cannot change that.
I rejoice that the Church in many countries is embarking on a path of reparation; it is justice. We, in any case, must pray to the Lord to heal all that can and all that must be healed in each of the victims.
Democracy seems to be losing its sense and being cast adrift by media shabbiness. This has been our worst-ever election campaign, characterized by the unforgivable accusations, total critiques, violence, chaos and the misleading of voters.
For us, these embryos are not things, but human beings. And from the depths of our faith, we cannot accept that they are selected, destroyed, the objects of experiments.
Major Works & Initiatives
Archbishop of Lyon and Primate of the Gauls
Promoted to Lyon on 16 July 2002 and installed that September, he led the archdiocese until 6 March 2020; the see carries the primatial title of Primate of the Gauls, and he served as chancellor of the Catholic University of Lyon.
Cardinal-Priest of Santissima Trinità al Monte Pincio
Created cardinal by St John Paul II on 21 October 2003. He was subsequently made a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life.
Seminary programme for the 1962 Roman Missal, Lyon
In 2010 he created a programme at the Lyon diocesan seminary (Maison Sainte-Blandine) to prepare Francophone candidates who wished, in accordance with the tradition in which he was raised, to celebrate Mass according to the 1962 Roman Missal.
Solidarity visit to Iraq's displaced Christians
In July 2014 he visited Mosul and Erbil and other Iraqi towns, as well as refugee camps for Christians displaced by Islamist militants, pledging daily prayer for their return; the previous year he had visited Tibhirine in Algeria, site of the 1996 murder of Trappist monks, accompanied by the Imam of Lyon.
Controversies
The Preynat case: conviction, acquittal and resignation
Barbarin was accused of not reporting to the judicial authorities, between July 2014 and June 2015, allegations that Fr Bernard Preynat had abused dozens of minors in the Archdiocese of Lyon in the 1980s and early 1990s, long before Barbarin arrived in Lyon in 2002 (Catholic News Agency). In 2017 Barbarin told Le Monde that he had not concealed the allegations, but that his response to them had been 'inadequate'; he said he opened an investigation after becoming aware of the allegations and removed Preynat from ministry in 2015 (CNA). On 7 March 2019 a Lyon court convicted Barbarin of non-denunciation of ill-treatment of a minor and gave him a six-month suspended prison sentence; five other archdiocesan officials tried with him were acquitted. Barbarin announced that he would present his resignation to Pope Francis, who declined to accept it while the appeal was pending and instead appointed an apostolic administrator for the archdiocese. On 30 January 2020 the Lyon court of appeal ACQUITTED Barbarin, overturning the conviction, after prosecutors in the appeal case had argued there was no proof of legal wrongdoing; the appeals court accepted that the law did not require him to report allegations he had learned of when the victims were adults, and that he had not discouraged them from going to the police themselves (CNA; Wikipedia). Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 6 March 2020. France's Court of Cassation definitively cleared him in April 2021 (Wikipedia). Preynat himself was convicted of sexually assaulting boy scouts and sentenced to five years in prison on 16 March 2020. Barbarin has since said that, although acquitted, his name will remain linked to the scandal, and that the acts in question were committed some twenty years before his arrival in Lyon and handled by those who led the diocese before him (interview with the Daily Compass).
Public interventions on marriage and bioethics
During France's 2012–13 debate over legislation to legalise same-sex marriage, Barbarin was one of the most outspoken episcopal critics of the bill, arguing in an interview with L'Osservatore Romano (November 2012) that marriage is the union of a man and a woman and that parliaments cannot change that, while also stressing dialogue with homosexual people and that they 'know they are loved and that they will always be welcome'. The College of Cardinals Report records that his stance, which he framed as a question of civilisation, earned him both supporters and critics, particularly within the government. He also intervened in bioethics debates, opposing the financing of embryonic stem-cell research through the national Téléthon while praising the appeal itself as a work of generosity (WWRN).
Sources
- Holy See Press Office — biography
- Wikipedia
- Catholic News Agency — French cardinal acquitted by appeal court of failing to report abuse, 30 January 2020
- National Catholic Register — Pope Francis Accepts Resignation of Cardinal Barbarin, 6 March 2020
- Rome Reports — Cardinal Barbarin is absolved of crime of covering up abuses, 30 January 2020
- ZENIT (Vatican News) — Cardinal Barbarin's release during his appeal trial, 31 January 2020
- New Daily Compass — Interview: Barbarin, false accusations against me are an attack on the Church
- College of Cardinals Report — Cardinal Philippe Barbarin
- Catholic News Service via The Leaven — Between election rounds, French cardinal deplores 'democracy gone mad', April 2017