French Archbishop, Christophe Pierre, says the reason he wanted to become a priest in the first place, was so he could minister to people in his home suburbs of Paris. Over the past fifty years, he has served in nine different countries. Now he’s about to be made a Cardinal, an honor he never expected.
ABP. CHRISTOPHE PIERRE
Cardinal-elect, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S.
Well, you know, nobody expects to become a cardinal, this is not part of our plan of career.
For the past seven years, Archbishop Pierre has been the Apostolic Nuncio, or Papal Ambassador, to the United States, a task that includes facilitating the appointment of new bishops.
When some media outlets make a point of highlighting what they perceive as tensions between Pope Francis and a few U.S. bishops, Archbishop Pierre responds like this:
ABP. CHRISTOPHE PIERRE
Cardinal-elect, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S.
They are in communion with the Pope. I know them.
This is what Pope Francis tells us all the time—tensions are not bad—on the conditions that you are not totally enclosed in your tensions, you still try to look at the person and not just the idea that the person is carrying on.
Archbishop Pierre says the U.S. bishops and Pope Francis share a common priority: evangelization. He describes the upcoming Synod as a chance to encourage dialogue and understanding in a spirit of mutual listening.
ABP. CHRISTOPHE PIERRE
Cardinal-elect, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S.
The synodal Church should be the real Church, the Church of people who work together, who dialogue with one another, who actually listen to one another because the meaning of dialogue is precisely synodality.
The last phase of the Synod on Synodality opens on October 4th. Archbishop Pierre says we need to use this opportunity to build unity and mutual support within the Church.
ABP. CHRISTOPHE PIERRE
Cardinal-elect, Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S.
We, all the faithful all around the world, and especially the Americans, we need really to be behind our bishops but also behind the Pope.
Archbishop Pierre will receive his cardinal’s red hat from the Pope during the Consistory that’s scheduled to take place in the Vatican this coming September 30th.
AT
