Laurent Ulrich

Laurent Bernard Marie Ulrich (; born 7 September 1951) is a French Catholic prelate who has served as Archbishop of Paris since 2022. He was previously Archbishop of Lille from 2008 to 2022 and Archbishop of Chambéry–Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne–Tarentaise from 2000 to 2008. He was vice president of the Bishops' Conference of France from 2007 to 2013.

Early life and education Laurent Ulrich was born on 7 September 1951 in Dijon. He earned a master's degree in philosophy at the University of Dijon, attended Saint-Irénée University Seminary, and obtained a Licentiate in theology from the Catholic University of Lyon. He was ordained a priest on 2 December 1979

Episcopacy Pope John Paul II named him Archbishop of Chambéry–Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne–Tarentaise on 6 June 2000. He received his episcopal consecration on 10 September right On 1 February 2008, Pope Benedict XVI appointed him Bishop of Lille, allowing him to retain the personal title of archbishop. The diocese was raised to the status of an archdiocese on 29 March and he was installed there the next day.

Between 2013 and 2016, responding to the urging of Pope Francis, he organized a provincial synod for his archdiocese and its two suffragans, Arras and Cambrai. Pope Francis included him among the papal appointees to the 2015 Synod on the Family. There he was elected reporting secretary of one of the French-language discussion groups. At one point he addressed the problem of mediating culturally specific concerns and universal norms: "The Church is united but there are cultural differences within it.... We cannot detach ourselves from Catholic unity or from the people that have been entrusted to us: we will need to hone our acrobatic skills."

He was awarded the rank of chevalier in the Legion of Honor on 12 May 2017.

He has advocated on behalf of migrants. In 2015 he said: "One cannot be Catholic, that is to say universal, and xenophobic." During that year's electoral campaign he called for the rejection of the anti-immigrant rhetoric of the National Front party, particularly its "hate speech" and "aggressive vindictiveness". In November 2021, he joined a prayer service at Dunkirk for a group of migrants who died at sea attempting to cross the English Channel.

In 2019, he closed Lille's archdiocesan seminary provisionally for lack of candidates.

He was vice president of the Bishops' Conference of France from 2007 to 2013 and from 2013 to 2019 president of its Studies and Projects Committee, which is tasked with animating the work of evangelization.

Paris Pope Francis appointed him archbishop of Paris on 26 April 2022. On 23 May, he received his crozier from Georges Pontier, apostolic administrator of the archdiocese, outside Notre Dame Cathedral, which was closed for restoration and reconstruction. He then led a vespers service there and entered the cathedral for a moment of private prayer. A Mass to welcome him followed at Church of Saint-Sulpice. A year earlier, when his predecessor in Paris, Archbishop Michel Aupetit, dismissed his vicar general Benoist de Sinety, a prominent figure in the media who had complained of a lack of support from Aupetit while focusing on support for migrants and those most vulnerable during the COVID-19 pandemic, Ulrich assigned Sinety to a prominent Lille parish.

He is president of the Council for Catholic Teaching of the Bishops' Conference of France.