Michel Aupetit, recently relieved of his duties as Archbishop of Paris by the pope, has indicated that he plans to sue a popular French magazine that published insinuating photos it secretly took of him and a young woman.
The 70-year-old archbishop said this week that his attorney is drawing up papers to sue the weekly Paris Match for defamation of character.
The magazine on December 8 published photos of him with theologian Laetitia Calmeyn, 46, suggesting the two were having an affair.
In an interview published Tuesday in the daily Le Parisien, the archbishop also addressed allegations made on November 22 by another French weekly, Le Point – namely that he alienated people by his style of governance and had an intimate affair with a woman in 2012 before he was a bishop.
Archbishop Aupetit told Le Parisien that “there was no affair” back in 2012 when he was vicar general of Paris. And he made it clear that, in any case, the incident “was not about Laetitia Calmeyn”, whom he did not even know at that time.
The woman in question “was a person who, as often happens when one is a priest or a doctor, becomes attached because she suffers from loneliness”.
Aupetit, who was a physician before being ordained a priest at age 44, said he exchanged email with the woman and acknowledged that their relationship was ambiguous.
He said the woman wrote to him “every day” and admitted that “once” when she “had a backache” he “gave a massage to relieve her”.
“If the pope had asked me, I would have weathered the storm”
“A few years ago, I reported this to my (superiors),” Archbishop Aupetit said.
“There is really nothing new in this matter. But its public exposure could have put the person who governs the diocese in difficulty,” he added.
He said that’s why he had decided to hand over his office to Pope Francis.
Did he expect the pope to accept his resignation?
“If he had asked me, I would have weathered the storm. I could have done it,” Aupetit said.
“I guess he felt that the situation could weaken the diocese,” he conceded.
After Francis accepted Aupetit’s resignation, the pope said the archbishop could no longer govern because his “reputation had been damaged”, citing a “breach” of the sixth commandment, “not total, but consisting of the little caresses and massages he gave his secretary”.
The archbishop said the woman in question was not his secretary.
“I think (the pope) mixed up the elements of the story a bit,” he said.
“My poor secretary had nothing to do with it. I know her husband and family well. I baptized her grandchildren,” he said.
Regarding the photos of him and Calmeyn that were published in Paris Match, the archbishop said he had lunch with the Belgian-born theologian and then they went for a walk in a nearby park.
“If you can no longer eat with a friend without the paparazzi photographing you, in what kind of world are we living?” Aupetit asked.
“This has nothing to do with a love relationship or a sexual relationship. It is a friendship,” he insisted.
“I find it despicable that it is soiled,” he added.
Victim of a cabal
The archbishop’s lawyer, Jean Reinhart, is currently drafting a complaint for defamation.
“I cannot accept that my silence is interpreted as an admission of guilt,” he said.
Calmeyn also told La Croix earlier this week “there will be a lawsuit” against Paris Match.
Archbishop Aupetit told Le Parisien that he feels he is the victim of a cabal.
“It’s been suggested to me that there are some people and groups that have a grudge against me and they took action. But I have no proof,” he said.
Regarding the problems of governance pointed out by Le Point’s article and his “unpopular” decisions, he explained that he did not take any decisions alone.
“Whether it was the replacement of the principal of Saint-Jean-de-Passy high school or the closing of the Saint-Merry pastoral center, I always acted in consultation with my councils,” the archbishop insisted.
“But it is I, as bishop, who must take responsibility, even if it means suffering rancor,” he said.
As for the successive resignations of his two vicars general, he explained that being a “vicar general is a difficult position”.
“I was one for seven years,” he said. “It is much more rewarding to be a priest in a parish.”
- Source: La Croix International
