After 25 years at the head of the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon, the very conservative Mgr Dominique Rey was forced to resign by the pope, which will clarify governance at the head of the diocese where he had already been required to share his responsibility.
Aged 72, he hoped to continue his mission until age 75, the automatic retirement age for a bishop. But the Vatican decided otherwise: “the nuncio informed me that the Holy Father was asking me to lay down my office as diocesan bishop,” Archbishop Rey announced Tuesday in a press release.
The Vatican was quick to accept this resignation, in a press release at midday, also announcing the appointment to succeed him of Mgr François Touvet, who had served as his right-hand man since the end of 2023.
For two years, the Var diocese had indeed been in crisis. In 2022, the Vatican had, in an extremely rare decision, suspended the ordination of priests and triggered an audit which led to the appointment of a coadjutor bishop, Mgr François Touvet, until now bishop of Châlons-en-Champagne (Marne).
The latter, responsible since November 2023 for the administration, the clergy, the training of seminarians and priests, in fact left little power to Mgr Rey.
What was accused of Mgr Rey has nothing to do with the numerous scandals of sexual violence which have shaken the Church in recent decades.
“I am mainly criticized for welcoming too broad communities or priestly and religious vocations, in particular from the traditional world, as well as dysfunctions in the economic and financial management of the diocese,” explained the bishop in an interview on Tuesday. to the weekly Famille Chrétienne.
Since then, there have been “no new elements” and “the Vatican forced Mgr Rey to resign, giving rise to a feeling of injustice. But he is not revolted and obeys”, indicated to AFP the bishop's entourage.
The Conference of Bishops of France, in a laconic press release, wished “a wonderful new pastoral stage for the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon and its faithful”.
– “Untenable” situation –
According to a good expert on the matter who does not wish to be cited by name, “there was no new fact” that prompted the start but more “wear and tear”, because continuing with two-headed management “would have been untenable”.
Adding a coadjutor to Mgr Rey was “a way of allowing him to leave with his head held high, provided that he understood that he had to leave”. “Too bad, he should have understood for himself” and not cling to his position, adds this source.
According to another source within the Church, “it was becoming complicated in the management of the diocese” and “at one point, Rome asked him to clarify.”
Having him accompanied by a deputy was a way of “not making too brutal a decision” to sanction him, she added.
But from the bishop's side, this request for resignation was perceived as “surprising”, experienced as “an earthquake”.
Coming from the Emmanuel community (a symbol of “charismatic renewal”), Mgr Rey, promoter of a re-strengthened Catholicism, was criticized within the Church for his style which may have been inspired by American evangelical pastors.
Its policy of welcoming new communities was also debated, targeting traditionalists and followers of the Latin mass for example, and other charismatics, particularly from Latin America.
In a quarter of a century, he has ordained more than 160 priests and this diocese in the south-east of France, a region that is both touristy and rural, now has 250 priests in 150 communes.
Although he refuses the “too old-fashioned” label of conservative, Mgr Rey nonetheless gave marked support in 2012-2013 to La Manif pour Tous which opposed marriage for all. The welcome offered in 2015 to Marion Maréchal during a Catholic summer school in the Var also caused excitement in Christian ranks.
“The traditional sphere must be in the Church, not apart. In my diocese, I was keen that it did not stagnate in a parallel world,” he said again on Tuesday to Famille Chrétienne.
But for another observer, it was “a pathological case of overactivity” and “which no one could get rid of”.
