Among these, we will count a 61-year-old Belgian priest, originally from Arlon and having lived in Bruges since his childhood: Dominique Mathieu. A Franciscan religious of the Order of Conventual Friars Minor, Dominique Mathieu was appointed, in 2021, archbishop of Tehran-Isfahan in Iran (a city where there were 2,000 Catholics).
This position, strategic for the geopolitics of the Church, the Pope therefore enhances it with the appointment of a cardinal within it. This nomination is indeed “significant and likely to strengthen dialogue with Iran – a country with which the Holy See has maintained diplomatic relations since 1954 – especially in the current context of war in the Middle East.”specifies the Vatican information site, Vatican News.
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Father Dominique Mathieu was born on June 13, 1963 in Arlon. After his schooling, he joined the Order of Friars Minor Conventuals. On September 24, 1989, he was ordained a priest, before becoming rector of the national shrine of Saint-Antoine de Padua in Brussels for several years. In 2013, he moved to Lebanon and was incardinated in the province of the Friars Minor Conventuals for the Orient and the Holy Land. He was secretary there, master of novices and rector of postulants and candidates.
As recalled on the website of the Church in Flanders, Otheo, Dominique Mathieu was always interested in questions linked to Islam and interreligious dialogue. “HAS Brussels, I lived for years in a predominantly Moroccan neighborhood and I studied the basics of the Arabic language at the mosque in Parc du Cinquantenaire. At the beginning of 2013, I left for Lebanon with the same inclination as Saint Francis. The Middle East has never let me go again.”he testified.
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