The Holy Father has appointed Bishop Jean-Paul James of Nantes as metropolitan archbishop of Bordeaux.
Archbishop-elect Jean-Paul James was born on July 14, 1952, in Rennes, in the archdiocese of the same name. He carried out his primary studies in the Catholic schools of Assomption and Saint-Vincent in Rennes. He obtained a licentiate in economic sciences at the Institut National de Sciences Economiques (INSEE) in Paris, and then entered the Saint-Yves major seminary of Rennes, where in 1984 he obtained the Baccalaureate. He completed his studies in theology in Rome, at the French Seminary, receiving a licentiate in canon law and a degree in moral theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University.
He was ordained a priest on 22 September 1985 for the archdiocese of Rennes.
Immediately after priestly ordination, he exercised his ministry as parish vicar in the Saint-Augustin parish in Rennes (1985-1987). From 1988 to 1990 he collaborated in the parish of Saint-Louis des Français, while in Rome as a student. In 1990 he became professor of moral theology at the major seminary of Rennes, and head of the Diocesan Vocational Service, offices he held until 1999 when he became rector of the same seminary. At the same time, he served, from 1990, as assistant of the Antenne of the Arche (home for disabled people, of Jean Vanier) in Bruz.
He was elected as bishop of Beauvais on January 9, 2003, and consecrated the following April 6. On July 8, he was transferred to the episcopal see of Nantes. Within the French Episcopal Conference, he is a member of the Council for Interreligious Relations and the New Religious Movements.
