The leader of the embattled Emmanuel Community, an association of the faithful dedicated to adoration, evangelization, and serving the poor, announced his resignation this week.
Michel-Bernard de Vregille said in an Aug. 6 letter to Emmanuel Community members that his second five-year term as the organization’s general moderator, beginning in July 2023, had been “particularly challenging.”
As De Vregille second term began, Fr. Benoît Moulay, a former priest of the Emmanuel Community incardinated in the French Diocese of Le Mans, was dismissed from the clerical state after being found guilty of sexual violence against two women and abuse of power.
In 2024, the prominent Emmanuel Community member Fr. Bernard Peyrous was indicted on charges of rape and sexual assault, which he denied.
Amid criticisms of the Community’s handling of abuse cases, members wrote to Vatican Cardinal Kevin Farrell and Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline of Marseille requesting an apostolic visitation.
As prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life, Farrell is responsible for international associations of the faithful, including the Emmanuel Community.
Aveline is the Community’s ecclesiastical assistant.
In March 2025, de Vregille announced that the Community would undergo an apostolic visitation, saying it would take place amid internal divisions over governance.
In the Aug. 6 letter announcing his resignation, de Vregille wrote: “Abuses committed by members and certain blind spots that may have hindered our ability to listen to victims have been a source of deep sadness for me.”
“For many years, the Community has been implementing measures that are beginning to bear fruit, and I am confident in our ability to continue without faltering, paying ever greater attention to victims.”
De Vregille said that the Community’s struggles had created friction between its various governing bodies, particularly the International Council, which comprises 15 members from Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
De Vregille wrote July 12 to Cardinal Farrell, saying that he was prepared to step down. He also offered to remain in office if the cardinal believed it was necessary to ensure a smooth leadership transition.
Farrell replied to his letter July 31, accepting his resignation with immediate effect.
On Aug. 7, the Emmanuel Community thanked de Vregille, a 64-year-old father of six, for his seven-year service as its leader. It noted that he had overseen the establishment of the clerical association within the Community, as well as the organization’s “synodal transformation.”
The French Catholic newspaper La Croix quoted sources within the Community as saying that de Vregille’s resignation was not triggered by a particular event but caused by fatigue following two difficult years of leadership.
The Emmanuel Community was founded in Paris in 1972 by Pierre Goursat and Martine Laffitte-Catta, inspired by their experiences in a Charismatic Renewal prayer group.
The Community spread globally after it established a center in 1975 at Paray-le-Monial, the site of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart, and began to host summer events. The Vatican formally recognized the Community as an international association of the faithful in 1992.
Since the 1990s, a growing number of bishops across France have invited the Community’s members to help revitalize parishes.
The Community now has 12,000 members in 60 countries, including 275 priests and around 100 seminarians, as well as 225 men and women committed to celibacy.
The Emmanuel Community has been a significant source of priestly vocations in France. Five of the 90 priests ordained in the country in 2025 belong to the community.
Bishops associated with the Emmanuel Community include Archbishop Guy de Kerimel, the controversial Archbishop of Toulouse, Bishop Dominique Rey, the pioneering bishop emeritus of Fréjus-Toulon, and Bishop Philippe Christory of Chartres.
An election will be held Aug. 9 to choose an interim leader of the Emmanuel Community from among the members of the International Council and a body known as the Council of the Fraternity of Jesus, whose members are appointed by the general moderator for five-year terms.
The election, held at the association’s headquarters in Paris, will consist of a secret ballot, with 19 people voting in person and 10 by proxy.
The winning candidate needs to secure a two-thirds majority of the votes in the first two rounds, an absolute majority in the third and fourth rounds, and a relative majority from the fifth round.
The Dicastery for the Laity, Family, and Life must ratify the candidate before the election’s outcome is announced publicly.
The interim leader is expected to set a date for the election of de Vregille’s successor as general moderator.