Alain Planet

Alain Planet (born 18 November 1948) is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who was bishop of Carcassonne-Narbonne from 2004 to 2023.

Biography Alain Emile Baptiste Planet was born on 18 November 1948 in Privas, Ardèche. After completing his primary education with the Marist Brothers in Bourg-de-Péage and Romans, he studied at the Faculty of Law and Modern Literature in Grenoble, earning a licentiate in literature and a secondary school teaching certification. He taught French at the Marist college in Bourg-de-Péage and was then director of the Lycee Saint-Maurice in Romans-sur-Isère. He entered the Saint Irenaeus Seminary of Lyon in 1978 and obtained his licentiate in theology from the Catholic Faculty of Theology there. He received his episcopal consecration on 19 September in the amphitheater of Carcasonne from Archbishop Guy Thomazeau of Montpellier. He chose as his motto (If God is for us who can be against us). In March 2018, he celebrated the memorial Mass in Trèbes for Arnaud Beltrame, the French who was killed after taking the place of a hostage.

Within the French Bishops Conference, he was responsible for sectarian aberrations from 2015 to 2021.

Following the release of the independent report on sexual abuse in the Church in 2021, Planet said he knew of three priest aggressors, one of whom had more than forty victims. Of those only two wanted to speak with him, which proved sufficient to make him understand how sexual abuse can destroy lives.

He has served as chaplain general of the French associations of the Order of Malta.

Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 31 March 2023.