Quick Facts
Biography
Bernard César Augustin Barsi (born 4 August 1942) is a French prelate of the Catholic Church, the current Archbishop of Monaco.
Biography
Barsi was born on 4 August 1942 in Nice, France.
He was ordained a priest on 28 June 1969. After his ordination, he served as a vicar at the parish of Saint-Etienne de Tinée in Nice from 1969 until 1972. From 1972 to 1982 he worked in the vocations office of the diocese. He was appointed pastor of La Trinité parish, serving in that capacity from 1982 to 1991. He was made vicar general of the diocese of Nice in 1991, and served in that position until 2000 with a brief interstice from 1997 to 1998, when he was administrator of the diocese in a period of sede vacante.
Barsi was appointed the Archbishop of Monaco on 16 May 2000. He was consecrated a bishop on 8 October of the same year. His principal consecrator was Jean Marie Louis Bonfils, S.M.A., at that time the Bishop of Nice, who was assisted by François de Sales Marie Adrien Saint-Macary, the Archbishop of Rennes, and Joseph-Marie Sardou, S.C.J., then the Archbishop Emeritus of Monaco.
In 2003 he oversaw a Vatican investigation into abuse of choirboys in the 1970s in Rome. The result was inconclusive.
He officiated at the funeral of Prince Rainier III in April 2005, and on 2 July 2011, he presided over the wedding of Prince Albert II and Charlene Wittstock.
Honours
Monaco : Officer of the Order of Grimaldi (Nov. 2011)
