Vicent Ribas Prats, bishop-elect of the Pitiusas: “My idea of being a bishop is to go on behaving like a parish priest”

These are very significant gestures. Vicent Ribas Prats (Sant Antoni, 1968) is still in the same office (where this interview is taking place) that he occupied for a decade as vicar general. Next to it is the bishop’s, which he has not occupied in the year and a half that he has been diocesan administrator. Not even now that he is bishop-elect. His simplicity is evident in his table, made of industrial beech wood, Ikea style, on which rests a medium-sized silver crucifix and several seemingly tidy papers although he apologises for what he thinks is a mess. There is also a refillable clear water bottle, and little else. The whole office is very plain, as he insists he wants his ordination to be, and simple, like him. Before starting the interview he talks to the photographer about one of his relatives, whom he knows by his nickname, and tells anecdotes like one about a very old lady (who reached the age of 104) with whom, when she turned 100, he did ball pagès, “She told me that she had had to wait 100 years to do something she would never have thought she would do: dance with a priest”.

I see that you haven’t even moved your office. Is the bishop’s office still as it was in Vicente Juan Segura’s time?

It’s not as it was, because we changed the furniture some time ago, which was like something out of an episode of ‘Cuéntame’. After the ordination I’ll move in there.

When Vicente Juan Segura was ordained bishop, half the Vatican came to Ibiza. Will your ordination be as grand as that or will it be more modest?

I want it to be as simple as possible. It is customary for my classmates (I studied in Valencia) to select me and give me the crosier. I also told them to please keep it very simple, made of wood, with a small knot and an image of the Good Shepherd and Our Lady of the Snows.

” Vicente Juan was a shy person, which is perhaps why he seemed distant”

Simplicity and frugality also in your new role as bishop?

My idea of being a bishop is to continue behaving like a parish priest of Ibiza and Formentera. To continue to be as I have been as vicar general, diocesan administrator and parish priest. I am not a person with a great intellectual background. I like the face to face contact with the people, looking them in the eyes, going to the parish to celebrate with them, going to the meetings they ask me to attend, so that they all get to know me. And they know me well [he laughs].

Since September 7th, when the nuncio told you that you would be the new bishop, you have kept it a secret. So you know how to keep a secret. How many people did you tell in Ibiza?

I only told one priest, Marcelo Jofré, the chancellor secretary.

Well, you know who you can trust with your secrets.

And last Sunday [10th October] I told my mother, Catalina, and my sister, Cati, after celebrating 25 years of priesthood in Sant Mateu, when we were driving back to Santa Eulària.

For the full article, please visit Diario de Ibiza website here.