Philippe Laguérie (born 30 September 1952 in

Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine Sceaux () is a commune in the Hauts-de-Seine department in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the centre of Paris. In 2019, Sceaux had a population of 20,004. A wealthy city Sceaux is famous for the Château de Sceaux, s ...

) is a French

Traditionalist Catholic Traditionalist Catholicism is the set of beliefs, practices, customs, traditions, Christian liturgy, liturgical forms, Catholic devotions, devotions, and presentations of Catholic Church, Catholic teaching that existed in the Catholic Church befo ...

priest. He was the first Superior General of the

Institute of the Good Shepherd The Institute of the Good Shepherd (french: Institut du Bon Pasteur, la, Institutum a Bono Pastore) is a Catholic society of apostolic life of traditionalist Catholic priests promoting Tridentine Mass and other traditional sacraments, in full c ...

(french: Institut du Bon Pasteur), which upholds the

Tridentine Mass The Tridentine Mass, also known as the Traditional Latin Mass or Traditional Rite, is the liturgy of Mass in the Roman Rite of the Catholic Church that appears in typical editions of the Roman Missal published from 1570 to 1962. Celebrated almo ...

Career

Laguérie was raised in a Roman Catholic family and he studied for the priesthood at the

International Seminary of Saint Pius X The International Seminary of Saint Pius X in Écône, Valais, Switzerland is the premier seminary of the Roman Catholic Traditionalist Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). The seminary is one of the six houses for formation for the future priests of ...

, in Écône,

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

. He was ordained a priest on 29 June 1979 by

Marcel Lefebvre Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre (; 29 November 1905 – 25 March 1991) was a French Catholic archbishop who greatly influenced modern traditional Catholicism. In 1970, he founded the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a community to train ...

, founder of the

Society of St. Pius X The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX) ( la, Fraternitas Sacerdotalis Sancti Pii X; FSSPX) is an international fraternity of traditionalist Catholic priests founded in 1970 by Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, a leading traditionalist voice at the Secon ...

. In 1984 he succeeded

François Ducaud-Bourget Monsignor François Ducaud-Bourget (November 24, 1897 - June 12, 1984) was a prominent traditionalist Roman Catholic French prelate, priest and close ally of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre. French resistance Ducaud-Bourget was born in Bordeaux. During ...

as priest in charge of

Saint-Nicolas-du-Chardonnet Saint-Nicolas du Chardonnet () is a Catholic church in the centre of Paris, France, in the 5th arrondissement. It was constructed between 1656 and 1763. The facade was designed in the classical style by Charles Le Brun. It contains many notable ...

in Paris, and remained there until 1997. In 2002, he moved to

Bordeaux Bordeaux ( , ; Gascon oc, Bordèu ; eu, Bordele; it, Bordò; es, Burdeos) is a port city on the river Garonne in the Gironde department, Southwestern France. It is the capital of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region, as well as the prefectur ...

where he illegally squatted the Saint-Eloi Church, before he re-examined his situation due to the creation of the

Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei The Pontifical Commission ''Ecclesia Dei'' () was a commission of the Catholic Church established by Pope John Paul II's ''motu proprio'' ''Ecclesia Dei'' of 2 July 1988 for the care of those former followers of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre who br ...

, which had been established in 1988 by

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II ( la, Ioannes Paulus II; it, Giovanni Paolo II; pl, Jan Paweł II; born Karol Józef Wojtyła ; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 1978 until his ...

to re-establish contacts with the Society of Saint Pius X. On 16 September 2004, Laguérie was dismissed from the Society by his superior bishop

Bernard Fellay Bernard Fellay (born 12 April 1958) is a Swiss bishop and former superior general of the Traditionalist Catholic priestly fraternity Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX). In 1988, Pope John Paul II announced that Fellay and three others were automatic ...

. Two years later, on 8 September 2006, he was chosen as leader of the newly founded '' Institut du Bon Pasteur'', which received

Pope Benedict XVI Pope Benedict XVI ( la, Benedictus XVI; it, Benedetto XVI; german: link=no, Benedikt XVI.; born Joseph Aloisius Ratzinger, , on 16 April 1927) is a retired prelate of the Catholic church who served as the head of the Church and the sovereign ...

's approval, thus regularizing the situation of the Saint-Eloi Church following a signed convention with the

archbishop of Bordeaux The Archdiocese of Bordeaux (–Bazas) (Latin: ''Archidioecesis Burdigalensis (–Bazensis)''; French: ''Archidiocèse de Bordeaux (–Bazas)''; Occitan: ''Archidiocèsi de Bordèu (–Vasats)'') is a Latin Church ecclesiastical territory or a ...

Jean-Pierre Ricard Jean-Pierre Ricard (born 26 September 1944) is a French prelate of the Catholic Church who was Archbishop of Bordeaux from 2001 to 2019. He has been a cardinal since 2006. He was previously Bishop of Montpellier for five years and before that a ...

. He was reelected for another six years term on 13 August 2013. The

Holy See The Holy See ( lat, Sancta Sedes, ; it, Santa Sede ), also called the See of Rome, Petrine See or Apostolic See, is the jurisdiction of the Pope in his role as the bishop of Rome. It includes the apostolic episcopal see of the Diocese of Rome ...

ratified the decision on 13 September 2013. According to canon law, the Institute of the Good Shepherd is a society of apostolic life dependent both on the Ecclesia Dei Commission and on the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. It exercises ordinary jurisdiction over the priests who depend on it.

Controversies

In the past, Fr. Laguérie has been sometimes connected with the French far right. In 1987, he took the defence of

Jean-Marie Le Pen Jean Louis Marie Le Pen (, born 20 June 1928) is a French far-right politician who served as President of the National Front from 1972 to 2011. He also served as Honorary President of the National Front from 2011 to 2015. Le Pen graduated fro ...

after the latter's controversial remarks on the gas chambers usage in the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and criticized "the great Jewish banking who has held France in a dictatorship for forty-five years". He also claimed that some

Holocaust denial Holocaust denial is an antisemitic conspiracy theory that falsely asserts that the Nazi genocide of Jews, known as the Holocaust, is a myth, fabrication, or exaggeration. Holocaust deniers make one or more of the following false statements: ...

theses were "perfectly scientific".''Des moulins à vent''
/ref> Since leaving the FSSPX, he has distanced himself from those views and has been very critical of Richard Williamson's negationist declarations, which he denounced on 13 February 2009, as, "scandalous and inadmissible ramblings". In 1996, Father Philippe Laguérie offered a Tridentine

Requiem Mass A Requiem or Requiem Mass, also known as Mass for the dead ( la, Missa pro defunctis) or Mass of the dead ( la, Missa defunctorum), is a Mass of the Catholic Church offered for the repose of the soul or souls of one or more deceased persons, ...

for the soul of

Paul Touvier Paul Claude Marie Touvier (3 April 1915 – 17 July 1996) was a French Nazi collaborator during World War II in Occupied France. In 1994, he became the first Frenchman ever convicted of crimes against humanity, for his participation in the Holo ...

at St Nicolas du Chardonnet in Paris. A French Nazi collaborator and the first Frenchman ever convicted of

crimes against humanity Crimes against humanity are widespread or systemic acts committed by or on behalf of a ''de facto'' authority, usually a state, that grossly violate human rights. Unlike war crimes, crimes against humanity do not have to take place within the ...

, Touvier had been a senior

Milice The ''Milice française'' (French Militia), generally called ''la Milice'' (literally ''the militia'') (), was a political paramilitary organization created on 30 January 1943 by the Vichy France, Vichy regime (with Nazi Germany, German aid) t ...

official and a high-level perpetrator of the

Holocaust in France The Holocaust in France was the persecution, deportation, and annihilation of Jews and Roma between 1940 and 1944 in occupied France, metropolitan Vichy France, and in Vichy-controlled French North Africa, during World War II. The persecution b ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Laguerie, Philippe 1952 births Living people People from Sceaux, Hauts-de-Seine French traditionalist Catholics Traditionalist Catholic priests Lycée Lakanal alumni 20th-century French Roman Catholic priests 21st-century French Roman Catholic priests People expelled from the Society of St. Pius X