He has been serving the Church for almost 75 years. Father Édouard Cothenet, priest of the diocese of Bourges, is preparing to celebrate his 100th birthday on July 25. Ordained after the Second World War, in 1948, this almost centenarian traveled extensively during his long priesthood. But it is a few streets from the house where he was born, in the shadow of Bourges Cathedral, that Father Édouard now lives with the other priests of the Saint-Guillaume parish. Despite his honorable age, he continues to celebrate mass almost every Sunday in front of parishioners. “I preach almost every Sunday,” explains Father Édouard Cothenet to Aleteia. “For me, it is important, I spend time there. It is an essential act of communicating the living Word of God.”
Biblical scholar and theologian
Father Édouard serves the Saint-Bonnet parish [devenue Saint-Guillaume-de-Bourges] for 30 years. A lifetime, some would say, but not far from being the only one for this original priest. Because if he likes serving in the parish, studies were the great passion of his life. “Against all expectations, the Bishop of Bourges sent me to the seminary in Paris,” he says.” An unexpected grace!” In the capital occupied by the Germans, he became passionate about philosophy, theology, and especially the study of the Holy Scriptures, his love at first sight. From Paris to Rome via Jerusalem, his passion for biblical exegesis led him to frequent the high places of the intellectual life of the Church. Father Édouard thus spent a large part of his active life as a priest between Bourges and Paris, where he taught at the Catholic Institute until the 1990s. He also found the time to publish around twenty works and contribute to the Ecumenical Translation of the Bible (TOB). And still today, at 100 years old, the priest directs the Faith and Culture association in Bourges, where he leads exegesis sessions. “I’m getting ready to retire,” he remarks. “Even though I will continue to participate.”
Bruno Cotheret
But for Father Édouard, the study of the Bible is far from being a simple occupation of a solitary scholar. It is indeed “the living Word of God”, which no Christian can abandon in his spiritual life. “There is a link between liturgy of the Word and the Eucharist,” he insists. “We must first listen to the Word of God and then unite ourselves with Christ]. By teaching, preaching and studying, Father Édouard wanted all his life to “share the Word like nourishing bread”. Tireless, he still comments every week on RCF-Berry on the first Sunday reading from the Old Testament, which he considers too often neglected in sermons. “The Old Testament is the book of the patience of God who establishes successive alliances with man, with falls and rises, and who teaches mercy,” explains the priest. “This is what our generation lacks most, which wants everything right away: we do not admit this long patience of God.” Father Édouard wants to encourage Catholics to form themselves to deepen their relationship with God, and to support each other in the faith. “We must be united in this march towards the Kingdom, which always exceeds us, which is always beyond what we can imagine and what we can say about it.”
