Vatican’s Fréjus-Toulon Enforcer Now Sent to the Community Emmanuel
The decree appoints Archbishop Antoine Hérouard, 69, of Dijon, France, as the Apostolic Visitator of the charismatic Emmanuel Community. Elections for a new general moderator are suspended until reforms are enacted.
Founded in France in 1972, the Community Emmanuel has 13,500 members in over 60 countries.
In March, the community announced that the Holy See had decided to conduct an apostolic visitation at their own request. The former moderator, Michel-Bernard de Vregille, 64, resigned in mid-2025. He is a father of six and a biologist.
Archbishop Hérouard is Vice-President of Commission of the Bishops' Conferences of the European Union. He is infamous as Visitator. In February 2023, he was appointed as Apostolic Visitor to the Diocese of Fréjus-Toulon. The Vatican wanted to remove Bishop Dominique Rey, and Monsignor Hérouard was useful in this endeavour. The diocese is currently on the way to collapse.
The Apostolic Visitation of the Community Emmanuel should officially face four problems/excuses:
- Overly centralized leadership, giving too much power to the top hierarchy.
- Poor integration into the decadent local dioceses; acting like a “church within the Church.”
- Mismanagement of parishes entrusted to the community.
- Failures in handling sexual abuse cases, including priests accused of serious offenses, such as Bernard Peyrous, former rector of the community’s spiritual center in Paray-le-Monial
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