Guy Gilbert – Keynote Speaker

Father Guy Gilbert (born 12 September 1935) is a French Roman Catholic priest and educator.

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 XIXe 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 a prolific author, Guy Gilbert’s appearance—his greying hair is long and flowing and he is usually seen in a battered leather jacket— and language are unorthodox. Former President Jacques Chirac made him a chevalier of the Légion d’Honneur. He received the award from Abbé Pierre.

Since 1978, he wrote about 15 books.