On 16 September 2004, Laguérie was dismissed from the Society by his superior bishop Bernard Fellay. Two years later, on 8 September 2006, he was chosen as leader of the newly founded Institut du Bon Pasteur, which received Pope Benedict XVI's approval, thus regularizing the situation of the Saint-Eloi Church following a signed convention with the archbishop of Bordeaux, Jean-Pierre Ricard.[1] He was reelected for another six years term on 13 August 2013. The Holy See ratified the decision on 13 September 2013.[2]
According to canon law, the Institute of the Good Shepherd is a society of apostolic life dependent both on the Ecclesia Dei Commission and on the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. It exercises ordinary jurisdiction over the priests who depend on it.[citation needed]
Controversies
In the past, Fr. Laguérie has been sometimes connected with the French far right. In 1987, he took the defence of Jean-Marie Le Pen after the latter's controversial remarks on the gas chambers usage in the Second World War and criticized "the great Jewish banking who has held France in a dictatorship for forty-five years". He also claimed that some Holocaust denial theses were "perfectly scientific".[3]
In 2021 he celebrated the Nuptial Mass of far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen and his girlfriend Jany, at the presence of various far-right politicians.[4]