Elder Gérald Jean Caussé, of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
Elder Gerald Causse, 62, born in Bordeaux, France, became the newest apostle of the Quorum of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. On Thursday, November 6, Dallin H. Oaks, the President of the LDS Church, members of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, and the First Presidency ordained Elder Caussé as an apostle. The announcement came weeks after President Dallin H. Oaks became the 18th President of the LDS Church. Elder Caussé joins two other European apostles, including Britain’s Patrick Kearon and Germany’s Dieter F. Uchtdorf.
Elder Caussé relocated to Paris when he was 19 years old and served in the French Air Force for a year. He met his wife, Valérie Lucienne Babin, as youth in the Latter-day Saint Church. While Elder Causse’s parents were baptized into the LDS Church when he was six months old, and Valérie’s parents became church members when she was three years old. Elder and Sister Caussé were married and sealed together in Bern Switzerland Temple in August 1986, and they are currently parents to five children. After graduating from ESSEC in France, with a Master’s degree in business in 1987, Elder Caussé began working for multiple food mart chains and food product distributors. When he was serving as the general manager at a French food distribution company, Pomona, he was called to serve as a General Authority Seventy in the Europe North Area Presidency, to assist the Twelve Apostles. Elder Caussé has been the Presiding Bishop of the Church since October 2015, when Elder Gary E. Stevenson was called to serve in the Quorum of Twelve Apostles. Elder Caussé has been the third non-US-born presiding Bishop in the Church. Before that, in 2012, he was called to serve as the First Counselor in the Presiding Bishopric.
In a news release Thursday, Elder Caussé shared a statement regarding his new role within the church: “I’ve always had a testimony of Jesus Christ. He’s always been in the center of my life. I know Jesus Christ lives. And I know he’s our Savior and Redeemer. What a wonderful thing it is to be a witness of Christ. That’s the best responsibility or stewardship we might have in our lives.”
Elder Caussé and his wife, alongside three of their children, had moved to Germany in 2008 to assume his duties as General Authority for the church. After joining the Presiding Bishopric, they relocated to the United States. In Thursday’s news release, after Elder Caussé was ordained as an apostle, he addressed that regardless of how their relocation affected their children, they never complained about it: “That was not an easy thing to do. We admire them for being so consecrated.” He continued: “They moved with us and changed life. And those who stayed in France, we admire them for not having their parents nearby for, now, 17 years.” Valérie said how the children who stayed back in France had encouraged them, adding, one of their daughters used to cry every night. However, their children never wanted to worry their parents. Valérie proclaimed she and Elder Gerald Causse were proud of their children.
Elder Caussé, as Presiding Bishop in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, oversaw its finances and a global temple building boom. With his appointment, he joins the order of succession to the church presidency, which is decided by seniority in the Quorum of the Twelve.
A native of France, Caussé spent the past decade as the Presiding Bishop who managed the church’s money and welfare programs. Under his leadership, the church increased its humanitarian spending and dotted the globe with sacred temples where the faith’s most sacred ceremonies take place. The Church does not disclose or discuss its finances. The financial interests of the Church include real estate, farms, publishing, life insurance, nonprofits, universities, a Polynesian cultural center in Hawaii and an upscale open-air shopping mall in Salt Lake City. Elder Caussé has at times been the Church official tasked with defending the church’s privacy surrounding its finances, saying in 2020, “We really consider those funds as belonging to the Lord.”
He fills a vacancy in the Quorum of the Twelve left by the recent death of President Russell M. Nelson and the appointment last month of a new president, 93-year-old President Dallin H. Oaks. In the first significant difference from President Nelson’s presidency, President Oaks announced during the faith’s recent general conference that the church will slow the announcement of new temples. The apostles, who are called to serve for life, tend to be older men who have achieved success in occupations outside the church. Elder Caussé was the general manager of Pomona, a food distribution company in France. The last three chosen for the Quorum of the Twelve before him were a U.S. State Department official, an accountant for multinational corporations, and a board member of charities and schools.
(Taken from an article published by MSN in November 2025)
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