2023-06-29 14:11:33
Appointed Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels on June 22, Mgr Luc Terlinden participated in the Mass celebrated this Thursday June 29 in Saint Peter’s Basilica on the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul. On this occasion, he received the pallium from the hands of Pope Francis. He confides in Radio Vatican–Vatican News regarding his future mission and the challenges he will have to meet.
Interview by Xavier Sartre – Vatican City
It is confident and serene that Mgr Luc Terlinden, 54, appointed just a few days ago, on June 22, Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels, receives this new charge. It is also full of humility, aware of being the only priest present in Saint Peter’s Basilica to receive on this Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul the pallium from the hands of Pope Francis, all the other new metropolitan archbishops already being bishops . He will also be ordained bishop on September 3, when he is installed at the head of the Belgian archdiocese.
“Be apostles like Peter and Paul”. On the Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul, this June 29, in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Pope Francis presented the pallium to the new …
Vicar of Cardinal De Kesel, he knows his future diocese well, having been parish priest there. He therefore knows the challenges that await him, and first and foremost that of the proclamation of the Gospel. “This passes through living and radiant communities”, he affirms, specifying that this means communities “where we listen to the Gospel”, where we pray together and “where the we live solidarity and fraternity”, with special attention to existing communities, to priests and deacons, and to all pastoral animators in a period of change in the Church.
No break with its predecessor
The appointed archbishop also intends to approach interreligious dialogue, especially with Islam, Brussels having a large Muslim community, without neglecting ecumenism, “always important”. He also has an intuition, linked to the European dimension of the Belgian capital. “There is something to do, even more,” he acknowledges.
Should we expect a break with Cardinal De Kesel? No, because Bishop Terlinden shares “a lot of his analysis, especially on the place of the Church in today’s society and its mission”. But he admits having “own accents”. “I also want to benefit from my experience as a pastor, parish priest and then vicar and to have a very pastoral approach in the field”, he specifies.
Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Luc Terlinden as the new Archbishop of Mechelen-Brussels. Aged 54, this native of Brussels was until now vicar general of the diocese of …
His ministry, Mgr Terlinden will assume it in the context of a much more secularized Belgian society, and of a Church “much more humble” but which “nevertheless has its place”. “We will be credible, as Charles de Foucault says, if we develop an apostolate of kindness, if we show ourselves to be fundamentally good, faithful to the Gospel, while not hiding our message and its demands” believes he. “Our credibility will go through this agreement between what we say and what we do,” he insists.
Charles de Foucauld as an example
Although he has not yet been ordained a bishop, Bishop Terlinden already has his episcopal motto: Fratelli tutti, with which he first wants to show that he will be a bishop among his brothers and sisters, “at the service of communion around the Christ”. He also wants, as Pope Francis pointed out, to insist on the social dimension and to implement it. It is “our relationship to the world and the society we want to build”. Another source of inspiration, Saint Francis of Assisi of course, but also Saint Charles de Foucault, to whom he was close, being a member of an eponymous brotherhood of priests. “It’s the search for this universal brotherhood, to be able to live like a brother to everyone”, getting closer to the smallest and the poorest.
To carry out his new mission, Bishop Terlinden knows that he has time for him. Aged 54, he should remain at the head of the archdiocese for many years. “It invites me to a certain patience” he recognizes. It is also an advantage in a broader perspective, and within the framework of the synodal journey begun by Pope Francis. This will allow us to “discern at best with Christians, with communities and with my collaborators, where the Lord calls us”. “Answers to these challenges will not be found locked away in an office at the archdiocese; it is really necessary that together, as a people, we discern. And a conversion always takes time”, he adds, thinking of the synodal process that the Holy Father has opened.
Interview with Bishop Luc Terlinden
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