The Vatican’s secretary of state Cardinal Pietro Parolin has warned French bishops that two groups stripped of their canonical status in 2020 are pretending to be Church-approved religious communities.
Members of the Points-Coeur association, whose male wing is known in English as Heart’s Home and female wing as Servants of the Presence of God, still wear habits, live like a religious community and promote vows of consecrated life, he said in a letter to the French bishops’ conference, but added that this was deceptive.
“They…have no more canonical link to the Church, even if they often continue to work civilly with NGOs,” he said. “This attitude cannot fail to arouse scandal among the faithful and among victims.”
Parolin’s letter, addressed to the bishops’ conference president Archbishop Éric de Moulins-Beaufort of Reims, Parolin warned bishops not to readmit these associations to their dioceses, “neither in another form nor under another name.”
If Points-Coeur continues to work as an NGO, it should ensure that its members “do not present themselves as religious communities and do not offer activities of an ecclesial nature”.
The two groups lost their canonical status because of “grave and prolonged irregularities”, Cardinal Parolin said.
Fr Thierry de Roucy launched Points-Coeur in 1990 as a group of faithful volunteers caring for the poor, but the Archdiocese of Lyon punished Roucy in 2011 for abuse of power, sexual abuse and absolution of a male accomplice – one of the gravest forms of spiritual abuse.
Rome laicised him in 2018 for disobedience to Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon, where he was incardinated. With its ecclesial associations suppressed, Points-Coeur continued as a civil association and described itself as a “Catholic NGO”.
According to its website, it continues to send young volunteers to 40 houses in 26 countries to pray, help the poor and “be present with those who suffer”.
“In this sense, they are above all seekers of God,” the association says.
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