“The hope of exiles amaze me”

How did migrants arrive in your life?

Three weeks after being ordered bishop, in the summer of 2017, I was at rest in my family when Father Guy Corpatals, a retired priest known to all in the diocese, called me: “There are lots of young African migrants in town. They can’t sleep outside. Could we open the Cordeliers presbytery to them? »»

The sale of this empty building was acted. I gave my agreement. The parish priest then organized the reception of these young unaccompanied minors (MNA) – according to the administrative name. Like the other exiles arriving in the Hautes-Alpes, they cross the border with Italy by the passes on the side of Briançon, then join Gap, the prefecture, in order to make themselves known as minors. This status opens up rights guaranteed by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Do you prefer the term “exiled” to that of “migrant”?

Yes, because this makes it possible to go beyond the distinctions between refugees – political, which would therefore be legitimate – and economic migrants. They do not correspond to reality. All are exiled people, far from their family, their country.

The following year, the celebration of wounding funeral, a young Nigerian, marked you. For what ?

The parish priest of Briançon, Father Jean-Michel Bardet, on the front line in the reception of exiles, informed me of the death of this young woman, wounding, whose name means “blessing”. She had fallen into the Durance while trying to escape the police. It was the first time that an exile has lost their life by trying to enter the department from Italy. In the diocese, we have judged that it would be good for me to chair the funeral – it seemed to be Catholic. Later, we knew that injury was evangelical Protestant. The church was packed with “solidarity” and inhabitants of the city. I felt their anger, both retained and very strong, commensurate with their commitment to help exiles. The mountain dwellers are experiencing the danger of the mountain. She makes victims in all families, but they do not accept the fact that we die there because of political choices. This celebration noted the church’s commitment to their side.

Who are the “solidarity”?

This is how those who devote themselves to exiles, all convictions combined: members of the Catholic Secours and parishioners of Briançon, volunteers of solidarity shelters, members of the collective all migrants … In Gap, families welcomed minors before even organizing and gathering in the hospital network. I myself was asked by this network to accommodate a pair of unaccompanied minors five times. This was possible at the time when a volunteer couple lived in the bishopric and could ensure a strong presence, absolutely necessary to surround young people shaken by the test of exile.

You had never spoken with an exile before becoming bishop, write yourself. What did you hear?

The causes of exile are summed up in a word: escape violence. The violence of political persecution, war. Poverty violence. To which other violence can be added. A young minor who had stayed at the bishopric told me that he took the path of exile pushed by his mother because he was beaten by his stepfather. And exile itself bruised. Another teenager who accompanied me during a walk shared his terrifying course through the Sahara, then what we can call slavery in Libya.

A new experience?

I was jostled. After my studies in political science, I worked as chief of staff to the mayor of Cognac (Charente). I was dealing with security issues. I also accompanied people in social difficulty, but the exiles made me discover a new part of the fraternity inscribed in the Gospel. Reading encyclical Fratelli Tutti (All brothers), from Pope Francis, in 2020, helped me a lot to put words on what I saw, to become aware of the unity of the human race: we are all brothers.

Do exiles continue to go through the Hautes-Alpes?

About fifty spends high mountain passes every night, adults and minors combined. Since February 2, 2024, in the event of an arrest, a decree of the Council of State has prohibited the police from repressing them to Italy, as this is not in accordance with European law. Exiles can now submit their asylum request to the border, without having to go through the high mountain. But that did not create “the air call” that supports of a stricter control of migrants invoke.

Last January, Bruno Retailleau, Minister of the Interior, still hardened the conditions for the regularization of undocumented workers.

Does it change something on the ground?

It is a real paradox: while several sectors of our economy lack arms – personal aid, catering, for example – we prohibit people in an irregular situation from being able to work. I note that the only desire of the exiled minors I met is to go to school, to train and work. I witnessed successful integration. Since I have been a bishop of Gap, I have seen an improvement in the action of the state at the level of the department, but a hardening at the national level.

In the first round of the presidential election, in 2022, 40 % of practicing Catholics voted for the RN, reconquest or standing France, hostile to immigration (Ifop survey for The cross April 10, 2022). For what ?

Migration is instrumentalized by politicians, left and right. Fear is an easy lever to activate. A father reproached me for “endangering (his) children” by my calls to reception. I think it’s exactly the opposite. If we had not taken care of the accommodation of unaccompanied minors during the peak of arrivals in 2017-2018, anxiety would have been great in Gap. While adults are quickly heading for England or Germany, minors remain. If we take care of them humanly, they integrate. This is why mayors should further support the structures born from the generosity of “solidarity”: the solidarity refuges association, solidarity terraces, the Hospitality network. It is thanks to them that things are going well.

What are your relations with the deputies of the department?

Both are socialist. That said, something of this department, in which I do not feel a strong opposition to migration. As in the sea, in the mountains, we do not let people die in danger. It is anchored in mentalities. On the other hand, many Hauts-Alpins have ancestors from the past from Italy to find a better life, and the memory of those who have left the country, numerous, for California or Latin America, fleeing misery.

You were criticized. What encourages you to persevere?

The word of the popes, the council, encouraged me. I am often told, “Take care of your sacristies. ” I do ! But Christian life is not limited to the liturgy. You just have to read Vatican Council II: Nothing that is human is foreign to the Christian. The teaching of the popes is coherent. François, grandson of immigrant, had strong words, but his predecessors too.

How did the exile meeting you change?

She enriched me. The commitment of all these people who began to welcome exiles fills me with admiration. I think of a member of the Catholic Secours de Briançon, who spends his time, his health, his property to this cause; I think of another man, non -Christian, extremely committed, whom I took to Marseille to meet Pope Francis, in 2023. And then, the hope of exiles amaze me. Almost all are Muslims. They say, “God saved me. They testify to a current, daily, powerful hope.