SSPX Priest Evades Justice
UPDATE
Six days after we published this report, which drew unwanted media scrutiny to Fr. Duverger and his community's behavior, the secretary of the Suresne priory finally accepted a legal summons on Fr. Duverger's behalf, bringing an end to his years of evasion.
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Original article:
Fr. Pierre Duverger, now in France, is avoiding a lawsuit.
(Suresnes, FRANCE) - A priest of the Society of St. Pius X is evading justice, with the help of his community.
For two years, Fr. Pierre Duverger has been avoiding being served legal papers, after a layman sued him for "fraudulent concealment" and breaking up his marriage.
Stephen Sanborn, Jr. filed his lawsuit in July 2024, naming the SSPX, Fr. Duverger and Fr. Arnaud Rostand as defendants. (Rostand is former U.S. district superior, who in 2024 pled guilty in French court to abusing seven children, and was sentenced to time in prison.)
Duverger has also been accused by multiple people of grooming and sexual assault. In our Aug. 20, 2021 Spotlight, an alleged 12-year-old victim in France accused Duverger of counseling her and engaging in explicit sexual conversations.
Duverger's removal from Bordeaux was the result of another sex scandal in which he was allegedly embroiled, involving a young adult woman he was counseling before marriage.
The scandal led to Duverger's transfer to Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in Silver City, New Mexico (then-Superior General Bp. Bernard Fellay claimed "heart-related health reasons" for the transfer) for a year of "prayer" and "penance," before being installed in the U.S. District Superior's communications office.
While restrictions were reportedly placed on him from being around girls or women, witnesses say those restrictions were not enforced.
Grooming and assault allegations continued to follow Duverger afterwards, as we reported in our April 22, 2020 Spotlight.
As Sanborn's lawsuit notes, in spite of the restrictions on Duverger, "Fr. Duverger undertook counseling and spiritual direction of Plaintiff and his then wife, Jennifer."
"In April 2014, at the behest of Fr. Duverger, Plaintiff's wife gave to him a letter admittedly dictated to her by Duverger falsely accusing Plaintiff of abuse and other misdeeds in the marriage."
"Shortly thereafter, Plaintiff was told by the Priests and an individual acting on behalf of the priests that he needs to move out of his home."
According to the complaint, "Duverger began a long-term relationship with Plaintiff's wife," who began seeing him "at all hours of the day and night."
Sanborn is accusing Rostand as superior of knowingly allowing Duverger to violate the restrictions imposed on him by frequently meeting alone with his wife, in spite of Duverger's known track record of alleged grooming and abuse of other women he had counseled.
He is accusing the SSPX of breach of fiduciary duty and constructive fraud, among other things, and is demanding a jury trial and compensatory and punitive damages.
"Highly insular and secretive," said Attorney Rebecca Randles, who is representing the plaintiff. "The SSPX has created an environment ripe for the use and abuse of power by its priests exercising influence over every aspect of the lives of its followers."
"The SSPX and those appointed to handle its affairs have eschewed oversight, allowing some of its priests to run amok, causing grave harm to those left in their wake," she added. "This lawsuit has been filed to shine a light on some of the priests' behaviors."
Avoiding Service of Process
The first attempt to serve process on Duverger took place in August 2024 at the SSPX priory in Sanford, Florida, where Duverger served as principal of St. Thomas More Academy.
After learning that Duverger had moved out of the country, further attempts were made in April, July, October and November 2025, first at the SSPX priory and school in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada, and most recently at the priory in Suresnes, France, Where Duverger is listed as in residence.
Duverger has been served three times at the Suresnes priory, with no response, even though the district superior, and numerous priests in residence, could have delivered the legal papers directly to Duverger. Rather than helping their fellow priest face accountability, the community is shielding an accused predator.
The lack of response — facilitated by the SSPX itself — led to the SSPX's request that the court dismiss the lawsuit for failure to prosecute.
Sanborn's attorney, however, submitted an affidavit from the process server signed on February 4 confirming that "[s]ervice is to be completed in France via the Hague Service Convention," going on to note that this is "a formal method of service for legal documents which are to be served in international matters under the Convention."
"Service via the Hague Service Convention has a minimum completion time of 4 months or longer after the request is received by the central authority for most countries, including France, but can take longer depending on unforeseen circumstances."
Long Track Record of Abuse Allegations
We have extensively documented the numerous sex abuse allegations brought against Duverger, stretching back to his time in Bordeaux in 2007, where he was embroiled in a sex scandal involving a young woman he was counseling, up until more recent times in Kansas and Missouri.
Duverger was ordained in 1995 and comes from a family of SSPX priests, with two brothers and three nephews who are SSPX clergy. His brother, Fr. Patrick Duverger, has served as district superior of the BeNeLux region (Belgium, The Netherlands and Luxembourg).
Another brother, Fr. Loïc Duverger, served as superior in Africa, where he mishandled the case involving Fr. Damian Carlisle, accused by multiple boys of pedophilia. Father Loïc also served as assistant to the French district superior for more than 20 years, where he was in the shadow of a number of sex abuse cover-ups under French district superior Fr. Régis de Cacqueray.
According to an article in The Angelus, Duverger "is from a family of 11 which had the honor of being a friend of Archbishop Lefebvre's since the 1950s in Africa."
In an email dated Dec. 14, 2019, SSPX priest Fr. Hervé de la Tour, speaking of Duverger, admitted to whistleblower Jassy Jacas, "We know of several victims already," clarifying in a later email that the allegations go back as early as 2007 or 2008.
Scandal in Bordeaux
That incident involved an ongoing sexual affair with a psychologically vulnerable young woman in Bordeaux, France, engaged to be married to another man.
The situation was first alluded to on a now-defunct website devoted to exposing traditionalist clerics' crimes: "Some traditionalists in the Bordeaux region know the real reasons for the sudden departure of Father D. (SSPX): Instead of teaching a bride the catechism on engagement and marriage, he gave her very concrete lessons on matrimonial relations, with practical exercises."
The website goes on to slam SSPX leadership for later promoting Duverger:
"What is a much deeper cause of scandal for souls is how such deviant behavior is followed by promotion. 'The fish rots from the head,' the saying goes. It is crucial to open your eyes to reality. We have seen it several times: Too often, 'traditional' clerics who allow themselves sexual deviations go unpunished for a long time because the faithful idealize the priesthood and are in what is psychologically called 'denial': They refuse a priori to admit the possibility that a 'good priest' commits sexual offenses."
Duverger, tasked with offering marriage preparation, instead is accused of engaging in a sexual affair with the woman over the course of weeks. The local SSPX sisters whom Duverger served complained about their priest's absence from chapel duties because he was spending time with the young woman.
According to a reliable European source, Duverger "cynically exploited the situation of weakness of that girl, who was mentally disturbed and vulnerable."
In French law, Duverger may have committed the crime of abus de faiblesse ("abuse of a vulnerable person"), punishable under section 223-15-2 of the French Criminal Code with up to "three years imprisonment and a fine of €375,000" (~$440,000).
The crime involves taking psychological, emotional or physical advantage of an individual who is vulnerable "due to age, an illness, an infirmity, a physical or psychological deficiency."
When it involves taking sexual advantage of a vulnerable person, it rises to the level of rape, as the person would not truly be capable of consent.
Penalties are increased to five years behind bars and €750,000 (~$885,000) if "the offense is committed by the de facto or de jure leader of a group which pursues activities the aim or effect of which is to create, maintain or exploit the psychological or physical subjection of the people who participate in these activities."
When the woman's parents (one of whom was an attorney who on occasion represented the SSPX) discovered Duverger was taking sexual advantage of their daughter, they considered filing a criminal complaint for rape. The family — longtime devotées of the Society — eventually decided not to on the advice of another SSPX priest.
Shuffling Predator Priests
At the time they became aware of Duverger's offenses, then-superior general Bp. Bernard Fellay and then-French district superior Fr. Régis de Cacqueray failed to report him to police, as required by French law — a violation that can result in up to three years in prison.
This attempt to handle the matter internally was a direct violation of French law. According to art. 434-1 of France's criminal code:
"For anyone who is aware of a crime whose effects can still be prevented or limited, or whose perpetrators are likely to commit new crimes which could be prevented, failure to inform the judicial or administrative authorities is punishable with three years' imprisonment and a fine of €45,000."
A handful of exceptions are made for spouses, family members, health professionals and social workers, but there are no exceptions for clergy.
Both Fellay and de Cacqueray similarly failed to report SSPX priest Fr. Christophe Roisnel in 2011 when they learned he had raped several women at an SSPX school, instead choosing to send him to a monastery in Morgon in Beaujolais for a couple of years of "prayer and penance."
Civil authorities, however, arrested Roisnel, who was tried, convicted and sentenced for rape and torture, before Fellay could reinstate him to active ministry. The priest is currently serving 19 years behind bars.
Fellay's modus operandi of sending away sex abusers for brief periods of "prayer and penance" before reinstating them to active ministry, where they often go on to abuse again, is typical of the practice of bishops before the sex abuse scandal exploded in 2002, when the Boston Globe revealed that Cdl. Bernard Law was shuffling around hundreds of predator priests, after sending them away for brief stints in rehabilitation centers like St. Luke Institute in Maryland or St. John Vianney Center in Pennsylvania.
Those priests would go on to abuse again. The case has been no different with the SSPX.
As we have reported, pedophile priest Fr. Philippe Peignot was able to abuse again, after the superior general first sent him to do "prayer and penance" at Lourdes before reinstating him to priestly ministry.
Convicted pedophile Fr. Frédéric Abbet was also able to abuse boys again, even after the SSPX's own canonical tribunal banned him from being around children — a ban Fellay violated almost immediately by assigning Abbet to live at a Brussels priory that shared the same roof as a boys' dorm.
After the parents sought justice, Abbet was convicted in criminal court and sentenced to five years in prison.
Three weeks after our Spotlight investigation revealed Abbet had never served out his sentence, he was arrested in Switzerland and is currently behind bars.
Fellay's actions towards Duverger followed the same pattern, with the same results. Shortly after the sex scandal in Bordeaux, Fellay reassigned Duverger — citing "heart-related" health reasons — to Our Lady of Guadalupe Monastery in New Mexico, where he spent two years in "prayer and penance."
In 2010, Fellay promoted Duverger to the role of personal secretary to then-U.S. District Superior Fr. Arnaud Rostand in Platte City, Missouri, U.S. headquarters of the SSPX.
Rostand himself pled guilty in 2024 to sexually abusing seven children, admitting in court that he had informed his superiors on no fewer than three separate occasions, over the course of 20 years, that he struggled with attraction to minors. Fellay kept Rostand in ministry, where he was able to continue abusing.
Duverger was eventually assigned to the communications team for the U.S. district, working alongside SSPX spokesman James Vogel and Louis Tofari — a surprising promotion considering the rape allegations.
Duverger spent time serving at Assumption Chapel in St. Marys, Kansas, where he was accused by at least two women of grooming and sexual assault.
Former U.S. District Superior Fr. Jürgen Wegner has admitted that he never investigated allegations of abuse against Duverger. Wegner was later reassigned to Austria.
