What happened within the walls of the “Maison de formation”, the seminary of the powerful Saint-Martin community (CSM), during the time of its founder, the French abbot Jean-François Guérin, who died in 2005 at the age of 75? Why is the Vatican asking this association under pontifical law, the main provider of priests in France (170 active, a hundred in training), to reform?
The details are secretly kept in a 1,300-page report archived in Rome, in the offices of the Dicastery for the Clergy. This organ of the Curia, responsible for monitoring the training of Catholic priests throughout the world, placed the CSM under the supervision of two “apostolic assistants” on July 4, after an investigation conducted between July 2022 and January 2023 by Benoît Bertrand, Bishop of Mende, at the request of the Holy See and the hierarchy of the community. The results of this “periodic pastoral visit,” according to Roman vocabulary, have not been made public. But, reading the letter posted online on the Saint-Martin website, one can measure the seriousness of the issues.
In addition “to accompany” the community in a “reform work” judge ” necessary “, “It will be a matter of establishing truth and clarity on the founding period, the personality of the founder and the facts which several former members accuse him of”write Matthieu Dupont, bishop of Laval, and François-Marie Humann, abbot of Mondaye (Calvados), the two apostolic assistants designated by Rome. Before adding: ” People who were listened to spoke of an abusive climate in the exercise of authority and spiritual support. Some people, adults at the time of the events, also mentioned gestures that could constitute sexual offences (forced kisses).
Three years to create “clarity”
Present today in thirty-two French dioceses as well as in Cuba, Germany and Rome, the Saint-Martin community was founded in 1976 at the Saint-François convent in Voltri, Italy, before the “mother house” – the headquarters – and the seminary moved to France in 1993, to Candé-sur-Beuvron, in Loir-et-Cher, then to Evron, in Mayenne, in 2014. The potential attacks date back to ” mostly “ from the Italian period, even if a testimony “evokes similar facts dating back to 1995”says Matthieu Dupont in an interview with the magazine Christian family, published on July 18. Contacted by The worldneither Matthieu Dupont, nor François-Marie Humann, nor Benoît Bertrand provide further details.
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