He will officially don the purple cassock on February 16, in the very solemn setting of the Saint-Denis basilica. A city priest in the middle of the necropolis of the kings of France! Étienne Guillet, 47, parish priest of Trappes (Yvelines) for nine years and currently stationed in Mantes-la-Jolie, has just been appointed bishop of the diocese of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis) by Pope Francis.
The news broke this Friday, November 15. And constitutes “a strong sign” immediately welcomed by the Missionary Fraternity of Cities. “His appointment is a very explicit recognition of the increasingly significant weight of cities and working-class neighborhoods in the dynamic growth of our Church in France,” comments this movement which brings together lay volunteers and around fifteen priests officiating in sensitive neighborhoods. of Île-de-France. Étienne Guillet knows well the realities and fragilities of these Christians from very different backgrounds. »
A childhood in Louveciennes before traveling
On social networks, the very recent appointment of Étienne Guillet is also applauded by Father Jacques Noah Bikoe, his successor at the Saint-Georges parish of Trappes, in which he officiated for nine years.
Father Guillet grew up in Louveciennes, an upscale town in Yvelines. He studied business in Lille (North), then traveled to Thailand for two years, as a development worker.
On his return, “driven by an inner conviction”, he entered the Saint-Sulpice seminary, in Issy-les-Moulineaux (Hauts-de-Seine). Seven years of study. A canonical license in theology. And suitcases packed and repacked according to his successive positions in the popular parishes of the diocese of Versailles: Mantes-la-Ville for five years, then Houilles, Trappes and the parish group of Mantes-la-Jolie, which he had just join in September.
In Rome with twelve young Catholics from the neighborhoods
A master in the art of “creating links between communities”, Étienne Guillet spoke to Le Parisien in December 2021, during Christmas mass. He then mentioned the controversy which had been raging for several months in Trappes, a town regularly singled out by CNews columnists, who referred it to its problems of insecurity and to the “Islamist influence” denounced by Didier Lemaire, former professor of philosophy at the Plaine-de-Neauphle high school.
“Here, the Catholic community and the Muslim communities do the same work,” insisted the priest at the time. We are not better than others, nor worse. Together, we have human responsibility for this population.”
Last January, at the initiative of Étienne Guillet and the Missionary Brotherhood of Cities, twelve young Catholics from Yvelines, Val-d'Oise and Seine-Saint-Denis benefited from a private audience with the Pope, in Rome. The project for this exceptional meeting at the Vatican emerged the day after the riots of June 2023 following the death of Nahel, this 17-year-old killed in Nanterre (Hauts-de-Seine) during a police check.
