(ZENIT News / Paris, 12.03.2025).-According to information published on Thursday, March 6, 2025, Pope Francis ordered and Apostolic Visit to the Emmanuel Community.
This decision seems to respond to a request of the Community itself, specifically to the desire to be supported in its work, in its organization and government. “I thank God for this decision, because I’m convinced that it’s good to let ourselves be looked at by the Church,” said the General Moderator, Michel-Bernard de Vregille, in a letter to the members of the Community.
This Visit, “will make possible a sustained support to our Community in this important step towards the future.”
Founded in France in 1972, the Emmanuel Community has close to 13,000 lay members, priests, and consecrated people, spread across 70 countries worldwide. Among them are 300 priests, 32 permanent deacons, some one hundred seminarians and 225 consecrated laymen. The Community has also given the Church ten Bishops. Recently, the Founder, Pierre Goursat, has been declared Venerable.
Following a seminar, organized in July 2024, on the subject of governance, differences of opinion arose among the members of the Community. “Before and after this summer seminar, we have experienced tensions in the heart of the Community government,” explained the Moderator. “We realized that we would not be able to go ahead alone.” So the International Council and the Moderator wrote to Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, Archbishop of Marseille and the Community’s Ecclesiastical Assistant, to ask for the help and advice of the Church. Meetings were held with the Archbishop of Marseille and with Cardinal Kevin Farrell, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, the Family and Life, who considered that an Apostolic Visit was the most appropriate way to respond to this request for outside help.
The Apostolic Visit could last between three months to a year, and will be of great support to the Community, which has “become a great boat” and faces many internal challenges, including its growth, very different international realities, the need to inculturate the charism and the complexity of its organization. “I have the feeling that this will require much work. I’m also conscious that this Visit will raise questions and that we’ll have to respond to them,” added Michel-Bernard de Vregille. “Therefore, leaning on the discernment of the Church, we trust in the fruits that this Visit will bear because, through it, it’s Jesus who accompanies us.” “Yes, we can be thankful, because this Apostolic Visit is truly a gift the Church gives us to accompany us. Through it, the Holy Spirit will make all things new,” Vregille concluded.
With information from ZENIT’s French edition.
