The Apostolic Signatura, the Church’s highest tribunal, has rejected the latest appeal filed by Philippe Madre, former deacon and former general moderator of the Community of the Beatitudes, thereby definitively confirming his canonical sentence and expulsion from the clerical state.
According to the French newspaper La Croix, the decision was adopted in January 2026, fifteen years after Madre was removed from the clerical state. The sentence has not been officially published, but it was reportedly communicated by telephone to several of the alleged victims who participated in the investigation conducted by Rome.
A Prolonged Canonical Process
Philippe Madre, a doctor by profession and former head of the community from 1985 to 1992, was accused in 2003 of sexual abuses committed in the context of spiritual accompaniments. He always denied the facts.
After two convictions by ecclesiastical courts in 2010 and 2011, he filed an appeal with the Apostolic Signatura alleging procedural defects. That appeal did not succeed, consolidating his expulsion from the clerical state. In parallel, he was excluded from the Community of the Beatitudes in 2010.
The recent decision reveals that the former moderator, now 75 years old, appealed again to Rome to defend his innocence. The Vatican tribunal has definitively dismissed that appeal, with no possibility of further recourse.
The Path in Civil Justice
The case also had a course in the French civil jurisdiction. In 2010, a judicial investigation was opened for alleged rape committed by a person abusing the authority derived from their function. Several women who had belonged to the community accused him of abuses committed over years in the community house in Cordes-sur-Ciel, where he simultaneously served as spiritual director and doctor.
According to the testimonies gathered in the judicial proceedings, the complainants stated that the facts occurred in a context of strong spiritual and psychological dependence.
However, after various appeals, civil justice issued a dismissal in 2018, considering certain legal elements insufficiently characterized, a decision later confirmed by the Court of Cassation, which ended the criminal proceedings.
The Community of the Beatitudes
The Community of the Beatitudes was founded in France in 1973 by Gérard Croissant, known as Ephraïm. With charismatic spirituality and international presence, it expanded to several countries and brought together consecrated members and laity in community life.
In recent decades, the community has gone through various internal crises and reform processes driven by the Holy See. In 2008, its founder was removed and subsequently excluded from the community. From then on, a structural and statutory reorganization began under ecclesial supervision, with the aim of clarifying its governance and preventing abuses of authority.
The case of Philippe Madre fits into that period of internal review and purification that affected the institution in the following years.
Other Subsequent Convictions
Apart from the facts linked to the community, Philippe Madre was sentenced in 2014 to one year in prison with a suspended sentence for forgery and fraud related to his medical activity. That same year, he was disciplinarily sanctioned by the regional medical council.
The definitive decision of the Apostolic Signatura thus closes the canonical path of a case that has marked the recent history of the Community of the Beatitudes and dates back more than two decades.