Nathalie Becquart

Nathalie Becquart was born in 1969. She graduated from HEC Paris in 1992, with a major in Entrepreneurship, She volunteered in Lebanon for a year and then worked for two years as a consultant in marketing-communication.[1]

In 1995 she joined the Congregation of Xavières. After a postulancy in Marseille and two years of novitiate, she spent three years on mission to the national team of Scouts de France, in charge of the Plein Vent program (scouting in working-class neighborhoods), She studied theology and philosophy at the Centre Sèvres (Jesuit seminary in Paris) as well as sociology at School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences.[2] She then pursued a course in theology at Boston College School of Theology and Ministry to specialize in ecclesiology by conducting research on Synodality.[3][4]

Nathalie Becquart in 2015

As soon as she joined the Xavières, Becquart began supporting young people within the Ignatian Youth Network (now known as the Magis Network). She was president of the association "Life at sea, entry into prayer" which offers young people spiritual retreats on sailboats and animates many cruise-retreats as skippers or spiritual guides. In her youth she had enjoyed vacations at sea.[5] In 2006, she became responsible for the chaplaincy of students in Créteil. In 2008 the Conference of Bishops of France appointed her deputy director of student pastoral care, and in 2012 director of the national service for the evangelization of young people and for vocations.[6] This led to her involvement in the preparation for the synod of bishops on "Young People, Faith, and Vocational Discernment", both in France and in Rome where she was appointed general coordinator of the pre-synod of young people in March 2018 and auditor for this Fifteenth Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops on young people in October 2018.[7]

On May 24, 2019, she was appointed, along with five other persons, including for the first time 4 women. consultor to the general secretariat of the Synod of Bishops in the Catholic Church.[8] She saw this as a part of Pope Francis' effort "to implement synodality at every level of the Church’s life" and to profit from the important contribution that women can make.[9] While men in the Curia are resisting Pope Francis' efforts to raise women to leadership positions, she suggested a symbolic step of asking a woman to lead the retreat for the Curia some year.[10][11]

She is the author of several books:

• 100 prayers to weather the storm, Paris, Salvator, coll.  "100 prayers",October 2012 ( ISBN 978-2706709593 ) ;
• The evangelization of young people, a challenge, Paris, Salvator. May 2013 ( ISBN 978-2706710209 ) ;
• Religious, why? Paris, Salvator, March 2017, 144  p. ( ISBN 978-2706714801 ) ;
• The spirit renews everything, Paris, Salvator, February 2020.

• Sr Nathalie Becquart: A Theological Reflection on the 2018 Synod
• Address to vocational directors at Hamilton, Ontario: Part 1
• Address to vocational directors at Hamilton, Ontario: Part 2
• WITNESS – Sr. Nathalie Becquart (in French)
• SYNODE DES JEUNES – Interview de Nathalie Becquart
• Entretien avec Sr Nathalie Becquart sur Querida Amazonia