Obituary: Cardinal Jean Balland

IT WAS less than two weeks ago, on 21 February, that Jean Balland, Archbishop of Lyons, knelt before Pope John Paul II to receive his cardinal's hat. On the morning of 1 March, he died of cancer in the Croix-Rousse hospital at Lyons. He was 63. He had been a cardinal for one week.

Although it was known that he had been unwell - his doctor had accompanied him to Rome, and it had been obvious that they had mounted the stairs at Saint Peter's, Rome with some difficulty - the news of his death came as a shock and people in Lyons were quick to pay tribute to him. He had been Archbishop of Lyons for less than three years. This large episcopate (with a population of one and a half million) was notoriously difficult, but it was noticeable that all the religious communities spoke in his praise, including integrist Catholics, Muslims, Jews, Protestants, Armenians and members of the Orthodox Church. Most emphasised one quality: Jean Balland was discreet, he did not seek publicity (unlike his predecessor, Archbishop Decourtray).

At first sight, to be called "l'archeveque discret" is a limited form of praise. But in the French Catholic Church discretion is obviously essential. Before being made Archbishop of Lyons, Jean Balland had been Archbishop of Rheims from 1988 to 1995. There he had the responsibility of preparing the most controversial and divisive of commemorations, the 1,500th anniversary of the baptism of Clovis, the first king of France.

This had supposedly taken place in 496, although historians denied this, and had been performed in the baptistry at Rheims, although archaeologists claimed that it had not yet been built. More seriously, traditionalists claimed that the baptism of Clovis was the baptism of France and that to be French was to be Catholic, but republicans claimed that France was a lay state and that it was necessary to beware of the encroachments of the Church.

Balland had to enter these controversies, all the more so because in planning the commemoration he had to raise money. The municipality of Rheims originally offered to pay some 2.6 million francs, but this use of taxpayers' money was challenged. It was only with tact and discretion that Balland was able to set in motion the financial arrangements for exhibitions, concerts and dramatic displays, to accompany the ceremony.

He had also to deal with Le Pen and the Front National. Already in 1992 Le Pen had wanted to begin his campaign opposing Maastricht against the background of Rheims Cathedral. Balland closed the building and cancelled the mass that Le Pen had planned to attend. In 1995, he organised resistance to Le Pen's intention to demonstrate in Rheims in the name of Clovis.

Discretion was necessary in Lyons. It was in January 1995 that the Pope relieved Jacques Gaillot from his pastoral duties as Bishop of Evreux. Gaillot had supported contraception and condemned priestly celibacy and after his dismissal he again became a media hero, arousing considerable public support. Balland sought to avoid this excitement. He was intensely practical. "Do you realise that a hundred priests are ordained each year, and that 800 die each year?"

He reorganised the parishes. "We must not put the immigrant populations in impossible situations," he stated, and frequently visited the worst suburbs of Lyons, not to be photographed, but to meet the people inside the churches. He opposed the violent demonstrators against abortion, but worked with the educational ideas of the Familles de France.

Another example of discretion was his continual refusal to accept the presidency of the episcopal conference. This body is frequently at odds with the Cardinal Archbishop of Paris, Jean-Marie Lustiger. The many problems of the Catholic Church in France today are not to be solved by internal quarrels. So believed this son and grandson of wine- growers, men who knew about silence.

Jean Balland, priest: born Bue, France 26 July 1934; ordained priest 1961; Bishop of Dijon 1982-88; Archbishop of Rheims 1988-95; Archbishop of Lyons 1995-98; named a cardinal 1998; died Lyons, France 1 March 1998.