On 4 November, the country's bishops met in an emergency session to "build towards the revival of the church," according to a statement.

The public relations nightmare of Léonard and his further controversial statements on gays and abuse by priests came to a head earlier that week, when his Flemish spokesman, Jürgen Mettepenningen, took the unusual step of calling a press conference to announce his resignation.

"During the recent period, Monsignor Léonard sometimes behaved like a driver going the wrong way on a motorway, who thinks that everyone else is going the wrong way," Mettepenningen said. He served as Léonard's GPS, he said, carrying on with the driving metaphor.

"Too often I had to make it clear that the route needed to be reconsidered, but if the driver...is blind to the accidents he causes on the road, then the GPS needn't wait until it is turned off, it should stop working because it has become superfluous. The driver believes only in himself."

Mettepenningen's decision came after he had agreed with the archbishop for two months of "radio silence", meaning no more public statements until Christmas. The idea was to limit the damage to the Léonard - and the church's - image, after severe criticism following Léonard's descriptions of homosexuality as "a form of human sexuality that has developed in the wrong direction" and arguments that elderly priests accused of sexually abusing children are better left unprosecuted.

Mettepenningen was Léonard's Dutch-speaking spokesperson (there is also a French-speaking one) and only served in the post for three months. A theologist and church historian from the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), he and Léonard occupy different wings of the church: Mettepenningen's opinions, including a positive view of the ordination of women, were not those of his superior. In an interview in De Morgen at the weekend, he recalled Léonard's response: "I respect the fact you have an opinion, and I respect that you are a man of debate. I am too, and I think we will be able to build something worthwhile together."

However, Léonard's later public statements, while not unexpected from a man who was expected to follow a much more conservative line than his predecessor, Cardinal Godfried Danneels, did not seem as if they had been cleared with a spokesman.

Mettepenningen soon saw that his attempts to impose a period of no-comment were futile, he said. "Monsignor Léonard is clearly not happy with the media silence that he accepted. If he cannot stick to the agreements made, and if there is not 100% trust, then I had a major problem. And this is where it stops."

The former spokesperson also took the opportunity to question Léonard's commitment to his role as head of Belgium's Catholic church. "At the level of the bishops' conferences in particular, he shows himself to be anything but a leader," Mettepenningen said, citing Léonard's absence at most bishops' meetings over the last few months and his refusal to call a special meeting after the police raids of the archiepiscopal palace in Mechelen last June by magistrates investigating child abuse allegations.

"It is not for me to say the man should resign, but it would have been better had someone else occupied the post," continued Mettepenningen. "The newspapers say he is isolated and, yes, I think that is the case. Almost everyone in the church is against him."

Johan Bonny of Antwerp was the only bishop to make a public comment after Mettepenningen's resignation. "Right now the Belgian church is like a boat sailing in stormy waters. But this is the boat with which we're going to have to make it through the storm. I'm not saying we need to throw Jonah out of the boat, but we do need to communicate better."

Bert Claerhout, editor of Catholic magazine Kerk en Leven, said: "You might expect someone like [Léonard] would give some consideration to his role - am I a force for unity or for division in the church? For the time being he would appear to be the latter, and that is immensely sad."

Meanwhile Gabriel Ringlet, the former deputy rector of the country's other Catholic university, the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Louvain-la-Neuve, explicitly called for Léonard to resign. "He should make the move; it would be a fine gesture on his part." A petition is being distributed among UCL staff calling for the archbishop to resign, though rector Bruno Delvaux said the university did not support the petition.

As for the pie-thrower, his identity is unknown. Video footage show a young man dressed in black with long hair tied back in a pony tail. The archbishop does not wish to make a formal complaint, according to his remaining spokesperson.