The photo, carefully framed, sits in his office, located in a narrow and dark alley, just behind Notre-Dame. Pope Francis and Benoist de Sinety, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Paris, talk with a smile in front of Panama Cathedral. The scene took place at the end of January 2019, on the sidelines of World Youth Day.
Two days earlier, on the papal plane that flew the delegation to Central America, Caroline Pigozzi, senior reporter at Paris Match and Vaticanist much appreciated in Rome, calls out to the Holy Father about his friend and protégé, Benoist de Sinety, who has just defended in a book (Voices must be raised, Flammarion, 2018) welcoming migrants. She slips a copy of the book into his hands. Forty-eight hours later, in the streets of the city, François gets off his popemobile to greet the Parisian priest and the 200 young people who accompany him: “I would like to thank the father of Sinety. ”
Right arm of the Archbishop of Paris
These words of the Pope did not go unnoticed, arousing some jealousy in the felted, and sometimes not very charitable, corridors of the Church of France. Bishop Benoist de Sinety is enjoying this unique moment. “For us, the Pope is a bit like the Grail”, he said smiling. One more distinction for this well-born 53-year-old priest, whose tall stature, clear eyes and deep voice are known to all of Paris, whom he baptizes, marries and buries with the same quiet gentleness.
It was he who celebrated the funerals of Bashung, Régine Desforges, Laurent Terzieff, Jacques Chancel and Juliette Gréco, in Saint-Germain-des-Prés. This winter, he buried the wife of the former minister Jacques Toubon, Lise, in Notre-Dame-des-Champs, but also the former boss of Paris Match Olivier Royant or the president of Eiffage Pierre Berger in the very chic Sainte-Clothilde basilica. Benoist from Sinety never travels for nothing.
The right-hand man of the Archbishop of Paris – of which he is one of the five deputies – also baptized Jules, the son of journalists Daphné Roulier and Antoine de Caunes. And married Inès, the daughter of Jean-Pierre Jouyet, the ex-minister of Nicolas Sarkozy and former secretary general of the Elysée during the five-year term of François Hollande, at the end of August 2019, in Normandy. “He gave a beautiful sermon”, welcomes the father of the bride, delighted that “The number two of the archdiocese came in person” in this small village in the Eure.
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