When the Vatican announced Bishop François Touvet would be coadjutor of the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, its authoritative Bollettino was silent on key facts about what he would do alongside incumbent Bishop Dominique Rey.
The French bishops conference soon added them, saying Touvet, 58, would have “special powers…in administration, clergy management, training of seminarians and priests, and support of institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life and associations of the faithful.”
Rey, who has led the diocese in south-eastern France since 2000, was deemed to have failed in precisely those areas during what the Catholic daily La Croix called his “atypical, missionary and reckless episcopate”.
Rey, 71, has been given a face-saving interval rather than being required to resign immediately as observers expected.
The Bollettino, the official daily summary of papal news, noted that Touvet had been administrator of “Verbe de Vie” (Word of Life), a private association of the faithful based in his current Diocese of Châlons-en-Champagne, east of Paris.
It did not mention that the group – a charismatic association of priests, nuns and laity – was dissolved in June 2023, or that Touvet had patiently met many members to hear complaints about the association as well as praise for its activities in France, Belgium, Switzerland, Brazil and Mali.
Rey welcomed many new ecclesial groups into his diocese and accepted seminarians rejected by other dioceses, including from abroad. Fréjus-Toulon had impressive numbers of seminarians, but there were also allegations of sexual abuse and insufficient oversight.
The Vatican suspended ordinations in the diocese in June 2022. An apostolic visitation followed early this year, with which Rey said he cooperated.
Touvet, speaking last year after being named Verbe de Vie administrator, echoed elements of Pope Francis’ call for bishops to have “the smell of the sheep”.
His discussions had revealed many “bad fruits” among the good that Verbe de Vie had done. “Recognising these bad fruits is the necessary step to begin a healing process,” he told La Vie magazine.
The group’s rules were “in the monarchical tradition”, he added. “Numbers are not a criterion … The work should be that of God, not our own projections, our desires or what we dream of.”
At the group’s final assembly in late May, he said: “I make an act of public repentance for the truth owed to the victims.
In a note to the faithful, Rey said: “I thank God to see our diocese emerge from the torment into which we have entered since June 2022 … Our diocesan Church will emerge from it grown in humility, forgiveness, questioning, trust in God and in the Church.”
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