A 48 year old vicar has become the youngest Roman Catholic bishop in France.
Fr Martial Bernard has been appointed Bishop of Soissons by Pope Leo and will be consecrated on 20 December. The ceremony will take place at Saint-Gervais-et-Saint-Protais Cathedral in Soissons, in the province of Reims.
Fr Martial was ordained in 2005 and until now, has served entirely in the diocese of Évry in the province of Paris.
He has been vicar general since 2018, and has also worked closely with seminarians and the diocesan commission for sacred art. He has been a member of the board of trustees for Catholic education and some of his responsibilities have included prison and hospital chaplaincies.
Up until Fr Martial’s appointment, the now 50 year old Bishop of St Denis Étienne Guillet is believed to have been France’s youngest Catholic bishop. He was consecrated at the age of 48.
Other younger bishops in Europe include Fredrik Hansen who was consecrated the Catholic Bishop of Oslo in 2025 at the age of 46.
In the Church of England, the youngest diocesan bishop is Rt Rev Helen-Ann Hartley, the Bishop of Newcastle. She was born in 1973 and consecrated as Bishop of Ripon in 2017 before becoming Bishop of Newcastle in 2023.
The suffragan Bishop of Loughborough Rt Rev Saju Muthalaly was born in 1979 and consecrated in 2022 at the age of 43.