Today, Pope Leo XIV made his first major Vatican appointment. French Archbishop Thibault Verny, 59, of
Chambéry will be the new president of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Major
scandal: Archbishop Verny engaged Elisabeth and Rémy Picq as diocesan
pastoral leaders for couples in "irregular marital situations". Both are
divorced and have been living together in a civil union for 19 years
(!), thus in manifest, hardened adultery.
In March 2025, they
wrote on LoyolaParis.fr: "Our bishop, Mgr Thibault Verny asked us to
propose a protocol for welcoming, accompanying, discerning and
integrating newcomers, as a roadmap for priests and pastoral workers."
They lead "discernment courses" for adulterers in the Archdiocese of Monsignor Verny.
Elisabeth
and Rémy Picq are listed on the archdiocesan directory as the official
contacts for "Chrétiens Concernés par le Remariage" (Christians Affected
by Remarriage).
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Some
believed that Leo XIV might give the Commission a fresh start with new
leadership. However, he chose the new president from among the
commission’s members for the sake of continuity [with Pope Francis].
Mosignor
Verny is an engineer, trained at the École Supérieure de Physique et de
Chimie Industrielles in Paris. He was ordained a priest in 1998. Pope
Francis appointed him as an Auxiliary Bishop of Paris in 2016 and as a
member of the Vatican Commission for the Protection of Minors in 2022.
As
Auxiliary Bishop of Paris, he reached an agreement with the
anti-Catholic city’s public prosecutor’s office to facilitate reporting
allegations against priests to civic authorities.
In May 2023, Francis promoted Monsignor Verny as Archbishop of Chambéry.
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