In 1831 he was appointed professor of dogmatics at the Major Seminary of Ghent, leaving in 1833 to take up a position as secretary to Mgr Franciscus Renatus Boussen, administrator apostolic of West Flanders (and from 1834 bishop of the reconstituted diocese of Bruges).

[1] Other measures taken included the setting up of a synodal council for clerical appointments, the drawing up of new statutes for the diocesan clergy and the cathedral chapter, encouraging the establishment of Sunday schools, and the publication of a new edition of the propers of saints of the diocese.

In September 1856 he caused consternation with a pastoral letter advising parents against sending their children to the University of Ghent, given its non-Catholic academic climate, and warning against the secular ethos of some secondary schools.

He supported the papal promulgation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in 1854, and in 1859 reintroduced Peter's Pence in his diocese.

He also encouraged lay apostolates for the sick and the poor, as well as for doctrinal instruction, and was active in relieving food shortages during the potato blight of 1846–1848.