Though poor health was the original explanation for his early retirement, he had privately admitted to Vatican officials that he had taken sexual advantage of his clerical status decades earlier by subjecting two young men to voyeurism.

[4] On 5 June 2020, he announced that Pope Francis had accepted his resignation as bishop which he had submitted at the end of 2019 for health reasons two and a half years in advance of the standard retirement age of 75.

[6] In reporting the personnel change, Vatican News wrote that Santier "had handed over his office to the Holy Father last June for health reasons".

[10] The Archbishop of Paris, Michel Aupetit, whose jurisdiction includes Créteil, forwarded a report of their witness to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) in December 2019; Santier acknowledged the truth of their testimony and tendered his resignation about the same time.

Without public notice, in October 2021, almost two years after receiving Aupetit's report, the CDF imposed disciplinary sanctions on Santier, who was by then bishop emeritus of Créteil.