Father Patrick Duverger, a French priest ordained in 1993 and former superior of the Benelux district of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Pius X (FSSPX), has left the Society to serve in a community of the Priestly Fraternity of Saint Peter (FSSP) in France, according to AdVaticanum reports. The change comes after the episcopal consecrations held in July in Écône, which the Holy See declared illicit.
Duverger joins the FSSP community in Viry-Châtillon, about twenty kilometers south of Paris, in the diocese of Évry. The announcement issued by that community states that “Bishop Michel Pansard has officially accepted the arrival of a new priest to serve our community,” according to AdVaticanum’s report.
Superior of the Benelux until 2022
Duverger led the district of Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg for a six-year term. Upon its conclusion in 2022, the FSSPX announced that he would return to France, and he was succeeded at the head of the district by Father Michel Poinsinet de Sivry, who would be consecrated bishop in Écône in 2026. Previously, he had served, among other assignments, in Gabon.
In an interview granted on July 31, 2017, to the district’s magazine, Duverger defended the charism of the Fraternity, which in his view consists in “manifesting the vitality of the Church’s Tradition,” and rejected the notion that it was schismatic or rebellious. “The Society is determined to live in that unity with Rome outside of which there is no salvation,” he stated at the time.
A transition between traditional communities
AdVaticanum recalls that at the beginning of July, Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández published a procedure for FSSPX priests who, on an individual basis, wish to regularize their situation with Rome. Duverger’s case thus adds to the movements of clergy between traditional institutions, which occur in both directions and are not new.
Indeed, there are also diocesan priests who have joined the FSSPX at various times, so that the balance of these changes is even and, in statistical terms, remains within the usual range. It should also be noted that the FSSP was born in 1988 precisely from the departure of twelve priests from the FSSPX following the consecrations of that time.
InfoVaticana has followed the consequences of the Écône consecrations and the subsequent excommunications, including Bishop Schneider’s request to integrate the FSSPX “as they are.”