Norbert Turini was born on 30 August 1954 in
Cannes and studied at the Lycée Carnot there. He received his episcopal consecration on 10 October from Émile Marcus, archbishop of Toulouse. In 2009 he joined a group of French bishops who criticized a Brazilian bishop for excommunicating a woman who arranged for her nine-year-old daughter, pregnant after being repeatedly raped by her stepfather, to have an abortion. He said: "We say it with all our strength, in this wounded world, we need to set forth attitudes of hope rather than hunker down in condemnations that run counter to the compassionate paths of merciful love." In a 2012 interview he said he was comfortable living with the French legal framework of
laïcité, and that it made it crucial to build bridges while "the danger is in words that end in 'ism'". He counseled non-violent responses to religious insults suffered by Muslims and asked for a "peaceful debate" about same-sex marriage.
Pope Francis named him bishop of Perpignan-Elne on 18 October 2014. He was installed there on 18 January 2015. His work there focused on increasing the number of parish visits and the creation of several hundred prayer groups. In November 2020, he objected when the government limited the number of attendees at religious services to 30. He said the Church had been entirely supportive of the government's health measures during the COVID-19 pandemic, but called this limit "a profound injustice" and told his priests not to count attendees. Pope Francis named him archbishop of Montpellier on 9 July 2022. Turini said he had expected to end his career in Perpignan, but declining the Montpellier title "would not be very evangelical". His installation in Montpellier is scheduled for 23 October. Within the French Episcopal Conference he was president of the Council for Communication from 2015 to 2021. He has been president of the Council for Interreligious Relations and New Religious Movements since 1 July 2022. ==References==