Father Étienne Guillet was appointed this Friday, November 15, bishop of Saint-Denis (Île-de-France) by Pope Francis. He will take office on February 16, 2025.
Pope Francis has named Father Étienne Guillet, aged 48, bishop of Saint-Denis, in the Île-de-France region, the Holy See Press Office announced this Friday, November 15.
This priest from the diocese of Versailles, involved in the pastoral care of prisons and circus people, had just been appointed parish priest in Mantes-la-Jolie after a nine-year mission in Trappes.
The mass of ordination and installation of the new bishop will take place on February 16 in the cathedral of Saint-Denis, indicated the Conference of Bishops of France. Father Guillet succeeds in this position to Mgr Pascal Delannoy, who was appointed archbishop of Strasbourg on February 28.
A priest's life in Trappes
Born October 28, 1976 in Abbeville, Étienne Guillet obtained a diploma from the École de Hautes Études Commerciales du Nord (EDHEC), before joining the seminary in Issy-les-Moulineaux, then the Carmes seminary in Paris. He studied theology at the Catholic Institute of Paris.
Ordained priest on June 25, 2006 for the diocese of Versailles, he served in a parish in Mantes-la-Jolie, where he dedicated himself in particular to youth, then in Houilles and Carrières-sur-Seine and in the parish of Saint- Georges de Trappes in Yvelines from 2015 to 2024.
In this last assignment, he experienced a reality marked by Islamism, within a population of 75% of immigrant origin. “I am not the priest of the thousand Christians in the city. I am the priest of the 32,000 inhabitants, because their fate interests me just as much. […] A life as a priest in Trappes also means being a friend to non-Christians,” Father Guillet, who maintained good relations with the town mosque, recently assured in an interview.
In charge of a diocese of 84 parishes
At the same time, in recent years, Father Guillet has been chaplain of the penitentiary establishment for minors in Porcheville, as well as chaplain of fairground workers and circus people. At the level of the diocese of Versailles, he was a member of the Episcopal Council and episcopal vicar for charity and mission.
At the start of the school year, he had just been appointed pastor of the Mantes-la-Jolie parish group. He will find in Saint-Denis a diocese of 84 parishes grouped into 19 units, served by 118 priests and 26 permanent deacons.
