Alisa said:
From all accounts that I have read on the BRMB he appears to be a rather liberal priest. Can you explain a little more about him Catherine?
thanks
He is liberal and not liberal actually.
He is a bit of a rebel and I understand very well that Laurent likes him so much. Father Gilbert has always been concerned about the cast outs. He's different from a parish priest, because he dedicates himself solely to young criminals, drugusers, people who come out of jail and have nowhere to go, who apparently have no future. Those young people are welcome on his farm and by taking care of the animals, and living together he tries to reinsert them in society. He also says mass every day on his farm.
So this is all very liberal but he does also stay very close to the church. In an interview he said that he is against homosexuals getting married. He likes the pope (but not as much as he likes Louis de Funès -a French actor-
), and he said the only reason why he buys condoms for his young people, is because they're not in a condition where they're capable of raising children.
He's a good priest IMO who doesn't want to exclude anyone: at the marriage of Laurent he also welcomed the divorced people in church, and who were watching TV. His speech was wonderful and moved everyone. He adressed the royal guests by saying: "you may have all the titles and all the money in the world, if you don't have love, you're nothing." He also asked to pray for "the child that's not yet born, and that's sleeping in the temple of his mother's body", which made Mathilde (who was expecting Gabriel) wipe away a tear
.
Guy Gilbert has also written several books, but I haven't read them (yet), so I can't say anything about them. He looks a bit strange (bewildered
), but he does a very useful job, and stays close to the church at the same time. At the time of the wedding he said he was proud to be standing near to an archbishop. He's very down to earth and knows how to say things in a direct but beautiful way.
I think that Laurent's current popularity, is largely due to his friend Guy Gilbert (btw he also knows the rest of the royal family. He met Astrid & Philippe and their families when he was in Belgium, and Paola & Albert have also visited him on his farm).
