“He was the face of a full-blown bishop. Its thin and long silhouette, with its aquiline profile, made it look like a large bird. His thinking was comparable to his physique: a height of vision and a sharp and deep look at things and people”remembers Father Arnaud Montoux, the last priest ordained by Mgr Georges Gilson, twenty years ago. The former archbishop of Sens-Auxerre died on Wednesday November 27 at the age of 95.
One of the last witnesses of the Second Vatican Council
His thick glasses accentuated his intellectual appearance. Which he certainly was. Born on May 30, 1929 in Paris, Georges Gilson was trained at the seminary of Issy-les-Moulineaux and at the Catholic Institute of Paris, before being ordained in 1957 for the diocese of Paris. After two years of licentiate in canon law in Rome, he worked as vicar in Nanterre. Noticed by the Archbishop of Paris, Cardinal Pierre Veuillot, he became his secretary in 1965 and accompanied him to Rome to participate in the last sessions of the Second Vatican Council.
“He was one of the last witnesses of the Council, which he lived intensely and which had never ceased to inhabit himcontinues Father Montoux, who teaches as a theologian at the Catholic Institute of Paris. He constantly returned to the historical depth of this event, emphasizing the richness of the reflections which had produced these fundamental texts for the Church, and which he encouraged to reread and reinterpret.. »
In 1968, he was appointed secretary to Cardinal François Marty, whose “spiritual son” he was. In 1976, he became one of its auxiliary bishops in Paris. He was responsible for composing the catechesis manual Living stoneswhich failed to receive approval from the Vatican.
A first bishopric in Le Mans, the second in Auxerre
In 1981, Mgr Gilson was appointed bishop of Le Mans. He quickly became appreciated by the people of Sarthe who saw in him both a field pastor – he attended, for example, the 24 hours of Le Mans – and a man of reflection aware of the challenges of modernity. For fifteen years, he put diocesan finances in order, opened the Center de l'Étoile, refounded the parishes which went from 375 to 80, brought brothers from Saint-Jean to Mamers while appointing and training lay people… The synod that he launched in 1988 guided the action and life of the diocese of Le Mans for more than twenty years.
In 1996, John Paul II named him archbishop of Sens-Auxerre and coadjutor prelate of the Mission of France, a “diocese without territory” created in 1941, whose symbolic headquarters is also located in Yonne, at the abbey of Pontigny. This choice confirms Bishop Gilson in his attention to the question of ordained ministries.
“As president of the episcopal commission of ordained ministrieshe then comments, I see a coherence in this double call: I am sent to the priests of the Mission of France, with their missionary dynamism, and to a diocese poor in priests. I am very happy about it: there is a challenge to take up. »
“The Seeking Bishop”
For this hard-working, very sensitive man, stewardship had to follow. Precise, Mgr Gilson was above all a wise man of files. A decision made should be implemented immediately.
The Catholic Review Goliath nicknamed him “the searching-headed bishop”remembers Father Montoux. “He saw the Church as a seeker of God, going out into the world to discover him already at work. »
At the end of 2004, having reached the age of 75, Bishop Gilson retired from all his functions to return to live in Paris. He remained very active for a long time, giving conferences, preaching retreats and exercising a ministry of prayer and apostolate within the Notre-Dame-de-Pentecost Church House in La Défense. He ended his days with the Little Sisters of the Poor, avenue de Breteuil in Paris.
” Each day, testifies Father Montoux, who had seen him again recently, he sat down at his work table to write a meditation on the word of God. There he delivered his reflections, fueled by his desire to find new ways of announcing the Gospel.»
Mgr Georges Gilson will be buried in Sens Cathedral. The date of his funeral has not yet been decided.
