Guy Gilbert (born 12 September 1935) is a French
Roman Catholicpriest and educator.
Biography
Born in
Rochefort, Gilbert was educated at a
seminary in
Algeria and ministered in
Algiers until 1970. He returned to France, to
Paris, where he specialised in working with
juvenile delinquents in the working-class
19th arrondissement where there was a sizable
pied noir community. He purchased a farm in southern France, in
Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, and established the Bergerie du Faucon centre where troubled youngsters might be reeducated and reintegrated into society through work, contact with animals and nature, and self-respect.
A regular radio correspondent with
Radio Notre-Dame, a frequent interviewee on television, a journalist with La Croix, and a prolific author, Guy Gilbert's appearance—his greying hair is long and flowing and he is usually seen in a battered leather jacket— and language are unorthodox. Former President
Jacques Chirac made him a chevalier of the
Légion d'Honneur. He received the award from
Abbé Pierre.
On 12 December 2015 Gilbert officiated the Catholic marriage between Belgian singer Paul Van Haver, known as
Stromae, and his wife Coralie Barbier in Martin's Patershof, a former church in
Mechelen.[1]
Select bibliography
(in French)Un Prêtre chez les loubards, Stock, 1978
(in French)La Rue est mon église, Stock, 1980
(in French)Des Jeunes y entrent, des fauves en sortent, Stock, 1982
(in French)L'Espérance aux mains nues, Stock, 1984
(in French)Aventurier de l'amour, Stock, 1986
(in French)Avec mon aube et mes santiags, Stock, 1988
(in French)Les petits pas de l'amour, Stock, 1990
(in French)Lutte, prie et aime, Éd. du Livre Ouvert, 1991