Former goalkeeper for Lens or Monaco in Ligue 1, converted as a chaplain, Guillaume Warmuz read in public on Saturday the book of Ezekiel, part of the Bible, during the Pope’s visit to the Principality.
Guillaume Warmuz made his return to the pitch at the Louis-II stadium in a very different costume this Saturday, March 28. Spent by AS Monaco from 2005 to 2007, at the end of a career mainly marked by his years at Lens (1992-2003), the former goalkeeper returned to the Principality on Sunday for a special occasion: the visit of Pope Leo XIV. During which he played an active role.
During the large public mass organized in the Monegasque enclosure, Warmuz found himself reading a piece of the Old Testament, the book of Ezekiel, in front of the sovereign pontiff and several thousand faithful, including members of the Monegasque princely family.
Became a chaplain after his playing career
His presence was obviously not a coincidence. Guillaume Warmuz – in parallel with his other activities – has served since the beginning of the 2010s… as chaplain. “I am responsible for the chaplaincy,” he explained to Ouest France in 2023, for the release of his autobiography. “I cannot celebrate Mass, nor give the sacraments. But lay people who are baptized can be intermediaries where there is a lack of priests. (…) I regularly visit (in retirement homes) people who are often sick, in memory fragile…
It was in 1996, during a serious knee injury during his career, that he had a revelation. “My relationship with faith opened up at that moment,” he still remembered. “I am in rehabilitation in Saint-Jean-de-Monts (Vendée) and I am very afraid. Of not being able to play again. I started to pray and go to the village church. I am alone, I ask God to help me because I feel that I am not going to get through this. I am hanging on Finally, little by little, it comes back, it still takes a year to heal, it’s a very long time, but I found new strength in prayer.” And thirty years later, the faith is still there.
