Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers (25 October 1898 – 27 February 1988) was a French Dominican

theologian Theology is the study of religious belief from a religious perspective, with a focus on the nature of divinity. It is taught as an academic discipline, typically in universities and seminaries. It occupies itself with the unique content of ...

who was illicitly made a

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Ngo Dinh Thuc A non-governmental organization (NGO) is an independent, typically nonprofit organization that operates outside government control, though it may get a significant percentage of its funding from government or corporate sources. NGOs often focus ...

and consequently excommunicated from the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He embraced ideas such as

sedevacantism Sedevacantism is a traditionalist Catholic movement which holds that since the 1958 death of Pius XII the occupiers of the Holy See are not valid popes due to their espousal of one or more heresies and that, for lack of a valid pope, the S ...

and sedeprivationism.

Biography

Michel-Louis Guérard des Lauriers was born near

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, on 25 October 1898.Istituto Mater Boni Consilii (IMBC)
"Memento di Padre Guérard des Lauriers o.p."
/ref> In 1921, he entered the

Scuola Normale Superiore The Scuola Normale Superiore (commonly known in Italy as "la Normale") is a public university in Pisa and Florence, Tuscany, Italy, currently attended by about 600 undergraduate and postgraduate (PhD) students. Together with the University of Pi ...

. He studied for two years in Rome, with Professor

Tullio Levi-Civita Tullio Levi-Civita, (; ; 29 March 1873 – 29 December 1941) was an Italian mathematician, most famous for his work on absolute differential calculus ( tensor calculus) and its applications to the theory of relativity, but who also made signifi ...

. In 1925, he entered the

Order of Preachers The Order of Preachers (, abbreviated OP), commonly known as the Dominican Order, is a Catholic mendicant order of pontifical right that was founded in France by a Castilian priest named Dominic de Guzmán. It was approved by Pope Honorius ...

. He entered the Dominican

novitiate The novitiate, also called the noviciate, is the period of training and preparation that a Christian ''novice'' (or ''prospective'') monastic, apostolic, or member of a religious order undergoes prior to taking vows in order to discern whether ...

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...

in 1927. He made his

profession A profession is a field of Work (human activity), work that has been successfully professionalized. It can be defined as a disciplined group of individuals, professionals, who adhere to ethical standards and who hold themselves out as, and are ...

in 1930. He was a '' normalien'' and '' agrégé'' in mathematics.

Priesthood

On 29 July 1931, des Lauriers was ordained a priest. In 1933, he became a professor of philosophy at the Dominican school of theology '' Le Saulchoir'', in Belgium. In 1940, he received a doctorate in mathematics with thesis ''Sur les systèmes différentiels du second ordre qui admettent un groupe continu fini de transformations''. Under

Pope Pius XII Pope Pius XII (; born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli; 2 March 18769 October 1958) was the head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 2 March 1939 until his death on 9 October 1958. He is the most recent p ...

, he served as a professor at the

Pontifical Lateran University The Pontifical Lateran University (; ), also known as Lateranum, is a pontifical university based in Rome. The university also hosts the central session of the Pontifical John Paul II Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family. The university ...

in Rome. In 1979, worried about Archbishop

Marcel Lefebvre Marcel François Marie Joseph Lefebvre (29 November 1905 – 25 March 1991) was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate who served as Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dakar, Archbishop of Dakar from 1955 to 1962. He was a major inf ...

and a possible deal with the Vatican among other things, des Lauriers wrote to Lefebvre warning him.

Sedeprivationism

Des Lauriers supported the belief that the current state of the papacy, based on

Paul VI Pope Paul VI (born Giovanni Battista Enrico Antonio Maria Montini; 26 September 18976 August 1978) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 21 June 1963 until his death on 6 August 1978. Succeeding John XXII ...

allegedly teaching

heresy Heresy is any belief or theory that is strongly at variance with established beliefs or customs, particularly the accepted beliefs or religious law of a religious organization. A heretic is a proponent of heresy. Heresy in Heresy in Christian ...

in the context of the

Magisterium The magisterium of the Catholic Church is the church's authority or office to give authentic interpretation of the word of God, "whether in its written form or in the form of Tradition". According to the 1992 ''Catechism of the Catholic Church'' ...

, was that Paul VI could not be a true pope, being only pope materially and not formally. This position is known as the Thesis of Cassiciacum.

Episcopacy

On 7 May 1981, des Lauriers was illicitly consecrated a bishop by the sedevacantist bishop Thuc in

Toulon Toulon (, , ; , , ) is a city in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of southeastern France. Located on the French Riviera and the historical Provence, it is the prefecture of the Var (department), Var department. The Commune of Toulon h ...

, France. He was excommunicated from the Catholic Church in March 1983 for this. Des Lauriers nonetheless purported to consecrate two bishops: Günther Storck (a German) on 30 April 1984, and

Robert McKenna Robert Fidelis McKenna (8 July 1927 – 16 December 2015) was an American Catholic priest of the Dominican order who was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. He was known for his traditionalist Catholic positions and was an advocate of sedep ...

(an American) on 22 August 1986.

Death and legacy

Des Lauriers died in

Cosne-sur-Loire Cosne-Cours-sur-Loire () is a commune and a subprefecture of the Nièvre department in central France. It was created in 1973 by the merger of two former communes: Cosne-sur-Loire and Cours.Raveau, France. Some leaders of anti-Modernist Catholic movements adhere to his Thesis of Cassiciacum: Bishop (a Belgian) of the '' Istituto Mater Boni Consilii'' (IMBC), and Bishop Donald Sanborn of the Roman Catholic Institute (RCI), among others.

Writings

By des Lauriers

*''Le Saint-Esprit, âme de l'Eglise'', Étiolles, Seine et Oise : Monastère de la Croix, 1948. *''Garabandal'', S.l., 1965. *''Lettera ad un religioso'' di

Simone Weil Simone Adolphine Weil ( ; ; 3 February 1909 – 24 August 1943) was a French philosopher, mystic and political activist. Despite her short life, her ideas concerning religion, spirituality, and politics have remained widely influential in cont ...

; trad. di Mariella Bettarini. Risposta alla ''Lettera ad un religioso'' di Guérard des Lauriers ; trad. di Carmen Montesano (''Lettre à un religieux''), Torino : Borla, 1970. *''La Mathématique, les mathématiques, la mathématique moderne'', Paris : Doin, 1972. *''Homélie'' (prononcée le 15 mai 1971 pour l'anniversaire de la mort de l'amiral de Penfentenyo de Kervéréguin), Versailles : R.O.C., 1973. *''La Charité de la vérité'', Villegenon : Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, 1985. *''La Présence réelle du Verbe incarné dans les espèces consacrées'', Villegenon : Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, 1987.