In an interview with Vatican News on Feb 4, Aupetit said Pope Francis "renewed his support for me" and again said he thought the former archbishop of Paris had been a "victim of hypocrisy and clericalism".

"He also wanted to show his confidence by asking me to remain in the Roman Congregation for Bishops, of which, as you know, I am already a member, and where I come every two weeks," Aupetit told the French webpage of the Vatican's news office.

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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

Pope Francis on December 2 accepted the 70-year-old Aupetit's resignation as Paris' archbishop after rumours intensified over a consensual relationship he had with an adult woman back in 2012.

The archbishop acknowledged the "ambiguous" nature of that relationship, but he's denied any sexual involvement with the unidentified woman.

But a week after the pope relieved Aupetit of his duties, Paris Match published photos of the archbishop dining and strolling through an area just outside of Paris with a 46-year-old Belgian theologian and consecrated virgin named, Laetitia Calmeyn.

In this exclusive interview with La Croix's Céline Hoyeau, she says the incident has a lot to do with the way many people view women in general and those involved in Church leadership.

La Croix: You appeared in an article in Paris Match on Thursday... It's the first time that a female theologian, a consecrated virgin in the Church, has been the object of such media treatment.

Laetitia Calmeyn: Two days ago, I was really shocked, I experienced it as a trauma. And then a question came to me: if it had been a man, a priest, at Archbishop Aupetit's side, would there have been the same treatment from the media?

Should women in the Church be reduced to objects of suspicion, fantasy, an expression of jealousy or servility? Does all this mean that, in the Church and in the eyes of the world, a relationship between a man and a woman that is lived in friendship is unthinkable?

I can fully accept that journalists want to meet me, but this theft of images and this editing to suggest suspicions — when there is no substance! — is terrible.

Some people may have reproached you for a form of imprudence in this walk with a bishop who had just resigned when he was suspected of an affair with a woman.

We must distinguish between prudence and mistrust.

As you could see from the photos in Paris Match, all the spaces were public spaces.

That someone who has recently been treated extremely badly should make room for friendship to get through the ordeal is part of the ABCs of faith. We must not make a mistake about that.

Where is the scandal today? Certainly not in friendship, but in the evil projected onto this friendship.

We must return to the objectivity of my situation.

What are my missions in the diocese? I am a teacher at the Notre Dame faculty of the Collège des Bernardins, and I am the director of the ISSR (Institut Supérieur des Sciences Religieuses). I sit on the council of the Paris seminary.

But I am not part of the team that accompanies Michel Aupetit in his governance. In one year, I went to the archbishopric once for a birthday.

There are priests who have important responsibilities in the diocese. Do people say to themselves, "Look, there is a man of power"?

I am far from being the only woman; there are others in the diocesan councils. And if I am sometimes consulted by priests or laypeople on one or another issue, it is in the name of my theological competence.

There is much talk about the place of women in the Church. To me, it seems very important that it is not only in a hierarchical relationship but also as colleagues. I have experienced this in the seminary: a woman's view is completely different from that of a man.

I am not in favour of quotas for women in the Church. That is not the issue. There is a necessary female perspective, but it is linked to charisms.

Women with responsibilities at the Bernardins are rare. Doesn't being alone in a world of priests run the risk of participating, oneself, in a clerical system?

At the Bernardins, there are more and more of us... So, if I follow your reasoning, we would no longer be involved, for fear of participating in a system.

I have found that clericalism, in part, is very unconscious. But what I also experience on a daily basis is that fraternity and friendships move things and make it possible to live real relationships of communion.

The question of the place of women is important so that men can also find their place as men, without necessarily identifying with their function.

What follow-up do you intend to do?

Personally, it is to be faithful to my consecrated life following Christ and to my mission. But this fidelity does not exclude a duty of justice.

Lawyers are exploring legal avenues. There will be a complaint.

But we have not yet precisely defined the subject of this complaint: invasion of privacy, defamation, slander... We must avoid this happening again.

Will you continue your mission at the Bernardins and at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith?

Yes, I am deeply happy there.

• First published in La Croix International. Republished with permission.

The unusually rapid acceptance has prompted speculation there is more to the issue than has been confirmed.

Reporters on the pope's flight from Greece to Rome asked the pope why he accepted the resignation so quickly.

"When the chatter grows, grows, grows," he told journalists, "he will not be able to govern because he has lost his reputation. That is why I accepted his resignation."

Francis accepted the resignation of Aupetit after only a week amid turbulence in the French Catholic Church. It was a surprisingly rapid response from a pontiff who usually waits for months before responding to such an offer and then often rejects it.

Aupetit, who offered his resignation in late November after the weekly Le Point accused him of managing staff brusquely and making isolated and controversial decisions. It also said he had an intimate relationship with a woman a decade ago, which he denied.

Pope Francis said Aupetit had apparently hugged and massaged a secretary, which he said was a sin but not very serious. "Aupetit is a sinner, as am I," he said.

Aupetit may have expected more time and support from the pontiff, who has shown less decisiveness in other abuse cases.

Lyon Cardinal Philippe Barbarin's resignation was not accepted for a year while he defended himself successfully against civil charges of covering up for a serial abuser priest.

In the Cologne archdiocese also struggling with accusations of an abuse cover up, Cardinal Rainer Woelki has been given a six-month "time out" to reconsider his mission, and Hamburg Archbishop Stefan Hesse, a former Cologne vicar general, has returned to work after a similar sabbatical.

It took only a month for Pope Francis to reject a resignation offer from Munich Cardinal Reinhard Marx, who cited an overall moral responsibility of the Church for sexual abuse cases as his reason.

The respected theologian Anne Soupa pointed out a disconnect. "For a disciplinary problem of a liaison with a woman, an archbishop resigns in three days," she said. "And for crimes committed against children, no bishop has resigned in France."

While the relationship with the woman may have been the catalyst for Aupetit's resignation, the pope's quick acceptance may have had more to do with the archbishop's governance problems.

Aupetit, a former medical doctor who critics said failed to grow into the Paris role, was accused by Le Point of "scathing ways (and) singular lack of listening and empathy". Controversial decisions included the abrupt shutting of an experimental parish and the firing of a Catholic school principal.

Red lights started blinking in March 2021 after Mgr Benoist de Sinety left for Lille, the second vicar general to quit in four months. Reports said Aupetit had ignored and humiliated the popular vicar, and Rome began thinking the archbishop should be transferred to another post.

Pope Francis has appointed Archbishop Georges Pontier as apostolic administrator sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the archdiocese.

Sources

• The Tablet
• La Croix International
• Catholic News
• CathNews New Zealand

"The Holy Father has accepted the resignation from the pastoral care of the metropolitan archdiocese of Paris, France, presented by Archbishop Michel Aupetit", according to a brief statement from the Holy See Press Office.

In an unusually swift move, the pope has appointed Archbishop Georges Pontier as apostolic administrator sede vacante et ad nutum Sanctae Sedis of the archdiocese.

Archbishop Aupetit said he chose to step down "to preserve the diocese from the division that suspicion and loss of trust are continuing to provoke."

The 70-year-old Aupetit had sent a letter to the pope offering to resign after the conservative, Paris-based newsweekly Le Point stated in November that it was investigating several complex issues that the archbishop had "brutally" handled in recent months.

Le Point also claimed Aupetit had inadvertently sent an email to his former secretary that proves he had had an affair with a "consenting adult woman".

"My behaviour towards her could have been ambiguous, implying the existence of an intimate relationship and sexual relations between us, which I strongly refute. I decided not to see her again, and I informed her of this," Aupetit had earlier admitted.

Aupetit issued a statement on the archdiocesan website following the Vatican announcement, saying his heart was "deeply at peace", although he admitted he was "greatly troubled by the attacks to which (he) was subjected".

"I ask forgiveness from those I might have hurt and assure you all of my deep friendship and prayer," the archbishop said.

He said he was "happy to have served this diocese with magnificent teams" of clergy and laity.

"I thank the many people who have shown me their trust and affection over the past eight days," he continued.

His statement was posted under the title, "The Lord giveth, the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord!".

Aupetit's resignation ends the former physician's meteoric rise within the Catholic hierarchy.

Ordained in 1995 at the age of 44, Aupetit was appointed vicar general of the Archdiocese of Paris after only 11 years of parish responsibility.

In 2013 Pope Benedict XVI named him auxiliary bishop of Paris. He was appointed Bishop of Nanterre 2014 by Pope Francis.

In 2017 Aupetit was named Archbishop of Paris, a role he held for just under four years. However, he has been relieved of his duties five years earlier than the normal retirement age of 75.

Sources

La Croix International

La Croix International

The Archdiocese of Paris will soon present its design to France's National Commission on Heritage and Architecture (CNPA) to restore the interior of the building damaged in the fire on the evening of April 15, 2019.

The Daily Telegraph English newspaper reported on Nov 26 that critics feared the changes would turn the building into a "politically correct Disneyland."

The article said that "confessional boxes, altars, and classical sculptures will be replaced with modern art murals, and new sound and light effects to create ‘emotional spaces.'"

"There will be themed chapels on a ‘discovery trail,' with an emphasis on Africa and Asia. Quotes from the Bible will be projected onto chapel walls in various languages, including Mandarin," it added.

Maurice Culot, an architect who has seen the plans, told the newspaper: "It's as if Disney were entering Notre-Dame."

The man in charge of the project is Gilles Drouin, a priest of the Diocese of Évry, he is also director of the Higher Institute of Liturgy at the Catholic University of Paris.

Fr Drouin was asked to improve the way tourists are accommodated and provide a more effective means of showcasing the cathedral's works of art. Both are issues that predate the blaze.

Drouin developed options in tandem, careful to consider both the pastoral and patrimonial aspects.

The project took shape with the help of architects, lighting and sound specialists, stage designers and artists. Then the various options were submitted to heritage professionals.

"Each step was validated by Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris," Father Drouin explains.

Catholics of Paris have raised concerns and demanded the archdiocese do a better job informing the public about the stages of the restoration project.

They called for more open discussion and urged planners to act with the "greatest humility" dealing with a work meant for the ages.

Drouin has readily acknowledged the criticism. But he says that earlier proposals that are now completely obsolete are still in circulation, which may fuel fears.

The cathedral will reportedly reopen for worship with a Te Deum on April 16, 2024, five years after the blaze.

Sources

La Croix International

Catholic News Agency

The 70-year-old archbishop, who was installed in the French capital in 2018 says he wrote to the pope out of a concern to preserve the unity of his archdiocese.

"The word ‘resignation' is not the one I used," he says.

"Resignation would mean that I am abandoning my office. In reality, I am handing it over to the Holy Father because it is he who gave it to me."

In its article, Le Point magazine alleged Aupetit had a consensual, intimate relationship with a woman. Its report relied on several anonymous sources who said they had seen a 2012 email Aupetit sent by mistake to his secretary.

Aupetit denied being the author of the email and told Le Point that he didn't have intimate and sexual relations with the woman.

Calling it a "mistake," he said he decided not to see the woman any more after speaking with Cardinal Andre Vingt-Trois, the then-Paris archbishop, at the beginning of 2012.

"My behavior towards her may have been ambiguous, thus suggesting the existence between us of an intimate relationship and sexual relations, which I strongly refute … I decided not to see her again and I informed her.

"Those who knew me at the time and who shared my daily life would certainly tell that I was not living a double life, as the article suggests," he said.

"I recognize, as I have said before, that handled the situation poorly with a person who was in contact many times with me."

Aupetit says he has also spoken to Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Bishops, about his situation and to Archbishop Celestino Migliore, the apostolic nuncio to France.

"This is not because of what I should or should not have done in the past — otherwise I would have left a long time ago — but to avoid division, if I myself am a source of division," he said.

Source

• The Globe and Mail
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: National Catholic Reporter

Archbishop Michel Aupetit used the occasion of the feast of the dedication of Notre-Dame de Paris to reflect on the spiritual metaphor of restoring one of the most important cathedrals in France, which was once called the "eldest daughter of the Church."

"This cathedral is also the symbol of the restoration of this Church founded 2,000 years ago by Christ himself," the archbishop said in his homily on the evening of June 16.

"Some believe that it is in ruins and that it is on the verge of collapse. Yet Christ asserted that the gates of death would not prevail against her. We believe it deeply: like our cathedral, the Church of Christ will remain standing."

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The archbishop, who on March 1st closed the Halles-Beaubourg Pastoral Center (CPHB) at the Parish of Saint-Merry, told a Catholic radio station the center's members had treated him unfairly.

"They beat me up because things unworthy of the Gospel are happening at Saint-Merry, and I have been called a fascist!" he said on April 17 during an interview on Radio Notre-Dame.

The comments angered members of the forcibly closed pastoral center.

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Archbishop Michel Aupetit announced his decision to close the Saint-Merry Pastoral Center, in a letter to the community in February. The centre closed on March 1.

The pastoral centre was created in 1975 by Cardinal François Marty, the then archbishop of Paris. Following the Second Vatican Council, the centre was intended to be a place to "invent new modes for the Church of tomorrow".

The centre quickly became a hotbed of Catholic progressivism.

Activities in the 16th-century Gothic church were overseen by both priests and laypeople. The lay could participate in the liturgy and preach during a Sunday Mass.

According to a well-informed source inside the parish, the poisonous climate was caused by a hardcore of the community. The group numbered about 20 people, mostly aged over 70.

Their "intolerance" and "sectarian mentality" also led to the departure of laypeople, many of them young.

The source told CNA: "These people were all in their twenties in 1968 and they shaped this community together with a beautiful initial intuition.

"But then they grew old together with their own codes, without ever renewing themselves or welcoming new people, cutting themselves off from reality."

"The youth fled because their proposals were systematically refused and they didn't recognize themselves in such a Church environment."

In response to Aupetit's letter, lay members of the community launched an online petition, which has gained around 12,000 signatures, urging the archbishop to resume dialogue and let them pursue their mission.

Karine Dalle, a spokesperson for the diocese, told CNA that the decision was in no way related to the pastoral nature of the centre, but rather to serious excesses at the parish dating back many years.

She said that the two last pastors of Saint-Merry, Fr Daniel Duigou (2015-2019) and Fr Alexandre Denis (2019-2020), resigned because they were unable to establish a dialogue with key figures at the pastoral centre.

Their predecessor, Fr Jacques Mérienne, left after nine years as head of the parish amid difficulties at the end of his tenure.

The spokesperson explained that the archbishop decided to revoke Saint-Merry's special status after Fr Denis departed a few months ago in poor health.

"The collaboration between priests and the lay was no longer working. Archbishop Aupetit took a decision of responsibility in the face of a hopeless situation where his priests were falling ill one after the other," she said.

Despite the archbishop's ruling, the centre's former leaders are seeking to reestablish the community. They recently launched the website Saint-Merri-Hors-les-Murs ("Saint-Merry Outside the Walls"), after the diocese regained control of the parish's official website. They intend to "set up think tanks and look to their ecclesial future."

Sources

• Catholic News Agency
• Cath News

They were opposing a bill allowing single women and lesbian couples under the age of 43 access to in vitro fertilisation (IVF) treatment.

In France, IVF is currently restricted to heterosexual couples who are married or have cohabited at least two years.

Besides broadening the rights of single and lesbian women, the bill also addresses the rights of children conceived by IVF.

If passed into law, children conceived with donated sperm will have the right to find out their donor father's identity when they reach the age of 18. This is not currently allowed.

Although the church hierarchy did not officially call on Catholics to march, it posted comments from 56 bishops on the bishops conference website.

All the bishops criticised the bill and urged opposition to it, often including public protests such as the march.

One prelate, Archbishop Michel Aupetit of Paris, said the bill "touches on the most essential foundations on which our human societies are built".

He described these as "filiation, the non-commercialisation of the human body, respect of all life from its conception until its natural death, the best interest of the child, a philanthropic and non-commercial medicine, a human ecology where the body is not an instrument but the place of the edification of the personality."

A speaker at the protest, former legislator Marion Maréchal, said the French government is seeking "to voluntarily deprive a child of a father or to transform him and the mother who carries him into a consumer product."

Others said the law would lead to a further reform legalising surrogate motherhood.

Organisers said the proposed law would weaken the family and therefore, thus society.

It is unjust "to authorise the manufacture of children voluntarily deprived of a father," they said.

Many participants fear assisted procreation will inevitably lead to allowing surrogate motherhood, a reform opposed by an even larger percentage of French.

The government has denied it would do this.

Several of France's neighbours, including Britain, Spain and the Netherlands, already allow IVF for single women and lesbian couples.

Polls suggest about two-thirds of the public support the bill, which has been passed by the lower house of parliament.

It will go before the Senate later this month.

Source

• Radio New Zealand
• The Tablet UK
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: The Times

This rule will apply even if the victims do not file a complaint.

Archbishop Michel Aupetit has signed a protocol with agreed with Paris's judicial authorities as an experiment for a year.

The agreement mirrors others the prosecutor's office has signed with the city's public schools and hospitals.

"We can trust French justice," the archbishop said when he signed the agreement.

Aupetit said when he was the bishop of Nanterre, he saw "by collaborating with the law, we got results that were much faster, safer and more respectful to people (and could) make the most appropriate decision.

"It's not about protecting the institution nor me ... we do not have the means to investigate," he said.

"The Church has made errors in the past, such as suspending an accused priest who was later acquitted."

The agreement came at a time when ever more people in France are coming forward about past sexual wrongdoing by priests, and after repeated scandals have pushed the French Catholic Church to step up efforts to address abuse.

Paris public prosecutor Remy Heitz said the agreement meant the legal system would "not leave the Church alone to judge complex situations".

The archdiocese will now immediately report any accusations of wrongdoing to prosecutors. In the past, the church would conduct an internal investigation first.

The lack of clear guidelines available to the Church has led to cases being covered up in the past. These include the the one for which Lyon's Cardinal Philippe Barbarin was convicted last March because he did not denounce a crime.

Heitz said his office was currently investigating 12 cases of alleged sexual abuse by clerics.

Several other dioceses in France are said to be considering a similar agreement with their local legal officials.

Source

• The Tablet
• Crux Now
• Image: Crux Now

Aupetit has called for a study into the possibility of housing families and lay people in the buildings of the Paris seminary building.

Sharing meals and time for communal prayer, "seminarians will therefore be able to meet the people for whose pastoral care he will later be responsible," Aupetit says. Read more