Achille Liénart
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
His Eminence Achille Cardinal Liénart (February 7, 1884—February 15, 1973) was a French prelate of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Bishop of Lille from 1928 to 1968.
Contents |
[edit] Biography
Born in Lille, Liénart studied at College Saint-Joseph, the Seminary of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, the Institut Catholique de Paris, Collège de Sorbonne, and the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome. He was ordained to the priesthood on June 29, 1907, and then taught at the Seminary of Cambrai until 1910, and then at Lille until 1914. During World War I Liénart served as a chaplain to the French Army, and did pastoral work in his hometown from 1919 to 1928.
On October 6, 1928, he was appointed Bishop of Lille by Pope Pius XI. Liénart received his episcopal consecration on the following December 8 from Bishop Charles-Albert-Joseph Lecomte of Amiens, with Palmyre Jasoone and Maurice Feltin (later Archbishop of Paris) serving as co-consecrators, in Tourcoing. He was created Cardinal Priest of S. Sisto by Pius XI in the consistory of June 30, 1930. Liénart, who participated in the conclaves of 1939 and 1958, was named the first Territorial Prelate of Mission de France on November 13, 1954, and later resigned from this post in 1964.
An active participant of the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), Liénart was a leading liberal voice at the Council and sat on its Board of Presidency. When the Roman Curia, composed predominantly of conservative prelates, issued a list of nominees for the members of the Council's commissions, Liénart objected that nothing of the nominees' qualifications were included[1]. He was also one of the cardinal electors in the 1963 papal conclave that selected Pope Paul VI.
Liénart resigned as Bishop of Lille on March 14, 1968, after forty years of service. After his death at age 89, he was buried in the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-la-Treille.
[edit] Trivia
- He ordained Marcel Lefebvre, who later founded the Society of St. Pius X, both to the priesthood (1929) and to the episcopate (1947).
- He championed social reform, trade unionism, and the Worker Priest movement[2].
- It has been rumored that Liénart was a Freemason, even having been raised to Grand Master[3]
[edit] References
- ^ Time Magazine. The Council Opens October 19, 1962
- ^ Time Magazine. Recent Deaths February 26, 1973
- ^ Arctic Beacon. Searching for the Illuminati Deep Within the Bowels of the Vatican January 16, 2006
