Gilles Wach

Gilles Wach (born Troyes, 26 November 1956) is a French Roman Catholic priest, co-founder and Prior General of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, a society of apostolic life of pontifical right.

Biography After finishing secondary school, he entered the seminary of Paray-le-Monial, where he did a year of formation. He moved to the seminary of the Diocese of Genoa, where he met Philippe Mora, who would be his friend and co-founder of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest. He was ordained a deacon by Giuseppe Cardinal Siri on 29 June 1978, and a priest by Pope John Paul II, on 24 June 1979, among other 24 deacons. He pursued his studies in Rome, residing at the Pontifical Irish College while studying for his doctorate in Theology at the Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas, with his thesis on St. Francis of Sales, Pédagogie de l'amour. L'éducation de la charité chez saint Francois. He was elected for a third six-year term on 24 August 2020.

On 24 June 2024, Wach, accompanied by Rudolf Michael Schmitz, was received in a private audience with Pope Francis. According to the ICKSP, the Pope insisted that the institute "continue to serve the Church according to our own proper charism."

Criticism

Wach has been accused of being "Machiavellian": enjoying expensive dinners, having seminarians act as servants, and wearing overly ornate and expensive ecclesiastical vesture. He was reprimanded in 2005 by Archbishop Piergiorgio Nesti of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life for inappropriately using the title "Monsignor", a papal honor which he had not earned.