Sins of the father?
Church News , Issue 1656
For 20 years, Welby sought the counsel of one Father Nicolas Buttet as a "spiritual director". Indeed, he has described Buttet as one of the "formative influences" on his life – an unusual choice for a mentor, perhaps, as Buttet was both younger than Welby and not an Anglican.
A Swiss Roman Catholic priest, Buttet founded a religious community known as the Eucharistein fraternity, which has two bases in France and one in Switzerland. It lives on donations and welcomes people who have been "wounded by life", including drug addicts, former prisoners and people suffering mental illness.
The community embraces Franciscan values of poverty and simplicity.
Rich pickings
However, it is alleged that Buttet enjoyed a lavish lifestyle as he toured the business communities of Europe shilling for funds for his project.
A canonical visit (a kind of Catholic church inspection) of the Eucharistein fraternity in 2021 found that it practised a "pyramidal, abusive, infantilising system".
The same year, a book by French journalists revealed that the fraternity carried out "exorcisms" on vulnerable people without their explicit consent.
Discredit history
This will be horribly familiar to those who have come across movements such as those run by Welby's discredited former associates John Smyth and Mike Pilavachi (Eyes passim).
Father Buttet resigned from the Eucharistein fraternity and the Philanthropos Institute, an intensive training programme for young Catholics, and in 2023 his bishop barred him from offering mass or hearing confessions.
He has that in common with his friend the former archbishop. Justin Welby has finally left Lambeth Palace and settled in south-east London. His diocesan bishop, who was once loyal to him, has so far declined to give him the permission to officiate that would be necessary for him to minister as a volunteer in his retirement.
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Next issue on sale: 3rd September 2025
