EWTN News reports the resignation of Jean-Paul Gusching, former head of the Diocese of Verdun, initially attributed to health reasons but later revealed by the Vatican to involve “inappropriate relationships with women.” The apostolic nunciature confirmed on November 4, 2025, that despite Gusching’s denials, “persistence of the situation” led “Pope” Leo XIV to impose restrictions including exile from his dioceses and prohibition from public ministry. A canonical investigation led by “Bishop” Stanislas Lalanne and “Archbishop” Philippe Ballot remains ongoing while civil authorities have been notified.
Erosion of Sacramental Discipline in the Neo-Church
The article’s admission of Gusching’s seven-year consensual relationship with an adult woman exposes the conciliar sect’s abandonment of sacramental theology. Canon 2359 §2 of the 1917 Code mandated latae sententiae suspension for clerics in concubinage, with removal from office for “notorious” cases. Yet the Vatican’s statement speaks only of “avoiding behavior that could be interpreted as contrary to priestly commitments” – a relativistic formulation condemned by Pius VI in Auctorem Fidei (1794) as “detestable subterfuge.” The 1942 encyclical Mystici Corporis explicitly affirmed that “clerics must shine as models of holiness,” a standard discarded in this tolerance of public scandal.
“Faithful to the received tradition, the Church recalls that priests — and therefore bishops first of all — are called to live in conformity with the commitments made at the time of their ordination,” Ballot wrote
This empty rhetoric contrasts starkly with Ballot’s refusal to declare Gusching’s suspension from orders. The 1917 Code (Canon 2303) required immediate removal of scandalous prelates without awaiting “presumption of innocence” – a modernist distortion alien to Corpus Iuris Canonici. The conciliar sect thus operates as a naturalistic corporation rather than the Mystical Body, prioritizing bureaucratic processes over the salus animarum.
Naturalism Replaces Supernatural Justice
The nunciature’s emphasis on “transparency” and referral to civil authorities reveals the neo-church’s capitulation to Enlightenment principles condemned in Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors (1865): “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church” (Error 55). True shepherds would follow Pius X’s Vehementer Nos (1906): “The Church forms men unto interior life… civil society aims at external public good.“
Ballot’s pastoral letter omits all reference to:
- Sacrilege committed through unworthy administration of sacraments
- Moral theology’s distinction between material and formal cooperation in evil
- Canonical penalties for scandalum datum (given scandal)
- The eternal consequences for souls misled by prelatic misconduct
This silence proves the conciliar hierarchy’s adoption of Rousseau’s social contract theory, reducing the Church to a human institution concerned with “trust between the faithful and pastors” rather than divine justice. As Leo XIII warns in Immortale Dei (1885), such naturalism “would banish all religious influence from civil legislation.“
Structural Apostasy of the Conciliar Sect
Gusching’s case exemplifies the rotten fruits of Vatican II’s abandonment of integrism. The 2021 French abuse report and creation of a “National Canonical Criminal Court” institutionalize the heresy condemned in Pius X’s Pascendi Dominici Gregis (1907): “Modernists reduce the Church to a federation of national churches.” True ecclesiastical discipline – as exercised by saints like Charles Borromeo against unworthy bishops – required public penance and deposition, not psychological counseling and discreet relocations.
The article’s reference to French bishops meeting in Lourdes – site of condemned false apparitions – symbolically underscores their apostasy. Pius XI’s Quas Primas (1925) established Christ’s social kingship precisely against such “laicism which would banish God from public life,” yet these modernists reduce His reign to bureaucratic damage control.
Conclusion: Eclipse of Ecclesial Authority
Gusching’s defiant claim that “they want my head” reveals the conciliar sect’s loss of divine authority. True bishops like Athanasius or Ambrose commanded obedience through holiness, not administrative coercion. When “Cardinals” wear rainbow crosses and “Popes” authorize pagan worship, disciplinary actions against sexual misconduct become arbitrary exercises of power – not manifestations of divine justice. As the Apostle warns: “For what partnership have righteousness and iniquity?” (2 Cor 6:14). This scandal confirms the neo-church’s identity as “the synagogue of Satan” (Rev 2:9), where even punishment of vice serves not God’s glory but institutional self-preservation.
Source:
Vatican confirms French bishop’s resignation linked to inappropriate conduct toward women (catholicnewsagency.com)
Article date: 06.11.2025