Guy Gilbert (born 12 September 1935) is a French Catholic priest 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 an author, Guy Gilbert is known for his atypical presentation; his long grey hair, his battered leather jacket, and his unorthodox language. 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.
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