The Pontifical Commission Ecclesia Dei has just engaged a Frenchman, 53 year old Patrick Descourtieux, a monsignor of the Archdiocese of Paris.Ordained in Paris (at St. Sulpice) in 1986, he was appointed pastor of the parish of St. Severin. In 1989 he moved to Rome where he worked with the French speaking division of the Secretariat of State for 10 years. An excellent musician, he served as organist at St. Louis-des-Français for 5 years. He then left the Secretariat of State and replaced Mons. Arrighi as rector of Trinita dei Monti church while also teaching at the Pontifical Institute for Patristic Studies, the Augustinianum.
He served at Trinita dei Monti for seven years. Following the closing of the house of the Sisters of the Trinita dei Monti, having been replaced by the clerics of the Fraternity of Jerusalem (the "Monks in the City") founded by Father Pierre-Marie Delfieu, he returned to Paris, and was appointed resident priest at the parish of St. Clotilde, then served as chaplain at Notre Dame from 2008 on.
Specialist in Patristics (having published translations of St. Hilary of Poitiers and St. Clement of Alexandria), he taught at the faculty of the Notre Dame Cathedral School.
Monsignor Descourtieux has a keen knowledge of the traditional liturgy and of the demand for this liturgy: In Rome he fulfilled the wishes of the faithful who desired to have the Sacred Triduum in the form now known as "extraordinary" by allowing it to be celebrated in Trinita dei Monti (this was in the days prior to the establishment of the Traditional personal parish in Rome -- CAP) . In Paris he was part of a delegation of diocesan priests who celebrate this form as needed.
