| Intro | Mauritian catholic priest |
| Is | Priest |
| From | Mauritius |
| Type | Religion |
| Gender | male |
| Birth |
19 July 1941, Réduit |
| Age | 79 years |
| Star sign | Cancer |
Cardinal Maurice Piat (born 19 July 1941) is a Mauritian Roman Catholic prelate who has served as Bishop of Port Louis since 1993; he is also a professed member of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit. Piat was ordained a priest in 1970 and made a bishop in 1991. Pope Francis made him a cardinal on 19 November 2016.
Life
Maurice Piat was born in 1941 in the Moka District in Moka, Mauritius. He attended the Collège du Saint-Esprit in Quatre Bornes and later entered the novitiate for the Spiritan order in Ireland, where he made his solemn profession on 8 September 1962. He also obtained a bachelor’s degree at a college in Dublin. He studied for the priesthood in Rome and was ordained there on 2 August 1970. he earned a licentiate in theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in 1972. That same year he spent three months in Bangalore, India, for his pastoral ministry.
He returned to Mauritius and worked as a catechist and professor at his old college until 1982 when he was made responsible for seminarians at Vacoas. From 1977 until 1979 followed a course on diocesan formation in Paris. He returned to his homeland to serve as vicar of the parish of Saint-François-d’Assise in Pamplemousses from 1979 to 1985. He became the pastor of the parish of Immaculé-Coeur-de-Marie in Riviere-du-Rempart in 1986. From 1981 he was in charge of diocesan pastoral planning.
On 21 January 1991 Pope John Paul II named him the Coadjutor Bishop of Port Louis. He received his episcopal consecration on 19 May 1991 from Cardinal Jean Margéot. He chose as his motto “Pousse vers le large” (“Set out into the deep”), a phrase Christ speaks in Luke’s Gospel, when he orders Peter, who has quit fishing for the day, to return to work. On 15 March 1993 he was appointed the eleventh Bishop of Port Louis and was installed that same year. Piat served as the President of the Episcopal Conference of the Indian Ocean from 1996 to 1992.
In March 2009 the government of Mauritius made him a Grand Officer of the Order of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean.
In 2015, Piat participated in the Synod on the Family.
He submitted his resignation as bishop on his 75th birthday as required by canon law. Pope Francis announced on 9 October 2016 that he would raise Piat to the rank of cardinal in a consistory on 19 November 2016. Mauritius has had only one cardinal before, Piat’s predecessor Jean Margéot. When created a cardinal on that date, he was made a Cardinal-Priest and assigned the titular church of Santa Teresa al Corso d’Italia.