POPE ACCEPTS PARIS ARCHBISHOP’S RESIGNATION OVER ‘AMBIGUOUS’ RELATIONSHIP WITH A WOMAN

Fri 03 December 2021:

According to the Vatican and the French Bishops Conference, Pope Francis accepted Michel Aupetit’s resignation as archbishop of Paris on Thursday due to his “ambiguous” relationship with a woman.

“I was greatly disturbed by the attacks against me. I ask forgiveness of those I could have hurt and assure you all of my deep friendship and my prayers,” Aupetit, 70, said in a statement following his resignation.

Aupetit offered his resignation after a report in Le Point magazine surfaced detailing allegations that he had engaged in a consensual relationship with a woman, which he denied.

‘IMMENSE SORROW’: CLERGY HAVE ABUSED 216,000 CHILDREN IN FRANCE SINCE 1950, SAYS INQUIRY

In a statement, Aupetit offered that he stepped down “to preserve the diocese from the division that suspicion and loss of trust are continuing to provoke.”

A spokeswoman for the diocese last week said Aupetit “had ambiguous behavior with a person he was very close to,” adding the relationship was neither sexual nor “a loving relationship.”

She said Aupetit’s resignation was “not a confession of guilt, but a humble gesture, an offer of dialogue.”

Catholic priests accept a vow of celibacy and must practice sexual abstinence under church rules.

Aupetit had led the Catholic church in Paris since 2018.

Pope Francis named Georges Pontier, the former archbishop of Marseille, as Apostolic Administrator of Paris, according to the bishops’ conference. Pope Francis has already turned down other offers of resignation in similar circumstances.

The Catholic Church in France released a damning report in October from an independent committee detailing decades of sex abuse of children by priests in the church. According to the report, clerics in France have assaulted over 200,000 children since 1950.

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