Vatican City – The diocese of Tournai has its new bishop: Spiritan Frédéric Pierre Rossignol, appointed yesterday, October 6, by Pope Leo XIV.
The new Bishop Rossignol, C.S.Sp., until now spiritual director of the Saint Paul the Apostle, which houses around 200 priests from the territories under the jurisdiction of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Section for First Evangelization and New Particular Churches, was born on January 5, 1974, in Berchem-Sainte-Agathe, Belgium. “God does not impose himself, he gives a sign,” he stated in 2023 upon being appointed spiritual director, expressing his desire to remain attentive to the needs of others and to grow in the depth of spiritual and fraternal life.
He entered the major seminary of the metropolitan archdiocese of Malines-Bruxelles, and attended courses in philosophy at the Université Catholique de Louvain where he was also awarded a degree in criminology.
After a year of voluntary work in China with the Missions Etrangères in Paris, he entered the Congregation of the Holy Spirit in 2000. He completed his theological formation at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Porto, Portugal. He gave his perpetual vows as a member of the Spiritan Province of Belgium-Kinshasa in 2005 and was ordained a priest on 11 December 2005 in Gentinnes, at the memorial of the martyrs of Kongolo in Gentinnes.
He has held the following offices: envoy in Vietnam to found the country’s first Spiritan community ; deputy parish priest in Bolivia ; major superior of the Vietnam-India circumscription .
In 2023, the diocese of Tournai had 712,000 baptized out of 1,351,127 inhabitants.
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