He studied at the Oratorian school in Veurne until it was closed in the French period, and completed his education with private tutors.

In Broglie's prolonged absences due to persecution by the civil powers, the administration of the diocese fell to his Vicars General assisted by Boussen, who on 12 May 1821 were acquitted of wrong-doing by the courts in Brussels.

[1] Jan Frans Van De Velde, bishop from 1829, appointed Boussen a canon of Ghent Cathedral and diocesan official.

He was consecrated titular bishop of Ptolemais in the church of St Salvator in Bruges on 27 January 1833 by Engelbert Sterckx, with Van de Velde and Jean Joseph Delplancq as co-consecrators.

[1] He abolished the surviving diocesan uses of Bruges, Tournai and Ypres, and in 1839 published a uniform Manuale pastorum, printed in Ghent by Van Ryckeghem-Hovaere.