“It was in Versailles that I began to ask myself questions about vocation and now I am coming back to it as bishop. ” This ” wink “ amuses Bishop Luc Crépy, when he was appointed Saturday February 6 by Pope Francis to lead the diocese of Yvelines. A diocese that he therefore knows, since he studied there and got to know the Eudists, whom he would join a few years later. As for the diocese of Puy-en-Velay (Haute-Loire), to whose leadership he had been appointed in 2015, he will leave it “Not without a twinge of the heart”.
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At 62 years old, Mgr Luc Crépy will therefore become bishop of one of the most important dioceses in France, one of the richest in priests and seminarians. “I take this appointment as a mark of confidence on the part of the Church, he admits without pretense. It will surely be a little difficult at times, but I leave confident, rich in my experience in Haute-Loire. ” Thus, he assures him, this first episcopal experience “Learned to be a bishop: to collaborate with everyone, listen to everyone”. Of its “Six happy years, which does not mean that the difficulty was absent” in Puy-en-Velay, Mgr Crépy therefore wants to keep this “Collaboration experience”.
A mission “Painful” on a national level
For those who had rather exercised their priestly ministry in towns, the Haute-Loire made it possible to go to the “Discovery of the rural world “. An experience that he also intends to put to good use in the Yvelines. “We must not forget that the diocese is not limited to Versailles and has a large agricultural part. ” Another diversity of the diocese, that of the populations, between the suburbs considered sensitive and the very chic prefecture.
In addition to his new functions, and while he now says to himself ” in fine fettle ” After a recent health concern, Bishop Luc Crépy intends to continue his role as president of the permanent cell for the prevention and fight against pedophilia at the level of the Conference of Bishops of France, which he has assumed since 2016. “It is a painful mission, but I am at the service because when one wants to follow Christ, one receives his missions, one does not choose them”, he explains.
This former teacher in moral theology at the Catholic Institute of Paris (1990-2001), was twice rector of the interdiocesan seminary of Orleans, from 1995 to 2001 and then from 2007 to 2012.
Approaching his future missions with apparent serenity, Bishop Crépy is already delighted to be able to pursue two of his favorite hobbies there. “I started gardening in Le Puy and there is a garden at the bishopric of Versailles. “ And if he does not plan to take with him the chickens that give him eggs every morning, his bike “Electric, given the relief of Puy” will allow him to enjoy the much flatter surroundings of the Palace of Versailles.
It is a few meters away, under the dome of Saint-Louis Cathedral, that Mgr Crépy will be installed at his new post on Sunday April 11, a week after Easter.
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