Father Nicolas Buttet, a former local Swiss lawmaker, lay Vatican employee, and philanthropist who founded the Fratérnité Eucharistein (Eucharistic Fraternity) in 1996 and led the community until 2020, has been forbidden to offer Mass, hear confessions, or have contact with the community, which operates in France and Switzerland.

The priest, now 61, was a speaker at the International Eucharistic Congress in 2008 and has been interviewed repeatedly by Vatican Radio and Vatican News over the past decade (2013, 2017, 2019).

A canonical visitation of the community found a “pyramidal, abusive, infantilizing system” whose “authoritarianism” was “reminiscent of that of a religious community in the 1950s,” according to a Swiss newspaper report. The visitors also criticized Bishop Dominique Rey of Fréjus-Toulon (France), who ordained Buttet to the priesthood in 2003, for lax oversight of the Eucharistic Fraternity.

Father Buttet, now at a monastery in France, disputed the visitation’s findings.

Francis Goes After Next Founder

Father Nicolas Buttet, 61, a former Swiss politician, was put under sanctions after a 2022 visitation of Eucharistein Fraternity which he founded in 1996, writes LeMatin.ch (January 23).

• Buttet is forbidden to preside the Eucharist in public, to hear confessions, and to contact his fraternity.

• Eucharistein which is supervised by Toulon Bishop Dominique Rey, has houses in Épinassey, Switzerland, and Château-Rima and Saint-Jeoire in France.

• The visitation accuses Eucharistein of "a pyramidal, abusive, infantilising system which has cancelled out the various dimensions of people's being, in particular their psychology" - which sounds like what Francis does in the Vatican.

• There are also complaints of "too much community life", a "lack of space for intimacy" and "inadequate human and spiritual formation" [as if that wasn't the rule in the Council Church].

• The accusation of an "omnipotent authority" which "robs members of their rightful autonomy as well as "fear of superiors" and a resulting "infantilisation of members" is also reminiscent of Francis.

• Interestingly, the exercise of obedience is accused of being "more reminiscent of a religious order in the 1950s".

• Buttet currently lives in a French monastery and has appealed the charges.

Seven months ago, after another visitation, the Vatican ordered the suspension of all ordinations of priests and deacons in the diocese of Fréjus-Toulon.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2022/06/06/the-vatican-suspends-the-ordination-of-priests-in-the-frejus-toulon-diocese_5985886_7.html

10,000 Catholics in the region signed a petition protesting the suspension.

https://aleteia.org/2022/06/13/thousands-petition-pope-francis-to-reconsider-decision-to-suspend-ordinations-in-toulon/

“Widely considered to be among the most flourishing dioceses in France, which annually yields numerous vocations, Toulon is known for its welcome of new movements and priests from other areas, including those attached to the Traditional Latin Mass, which was restricted by Pope Francis last year.”

https://cruxnow.com/church-in-europe/2022/09/french-bishop-meets-with-clergy-amid-diocesan-upheaval

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