The Archbishop of Paris affair further demolishes a collapsing Church<

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At the end of November, Le Point broadcast an investigation implicating Michel Aupetit, archbishop of Paris since 2017. Described as "authoritarian", "brutal", not very dialogical, he would have maintained, according to the weekly, an affair with a woman ten years ago. of years. This investigation had the effect of a bombshell in the Catholic world and prompted the Archbishop of Paris to place his charge in the hands of Pope Francis.

Aged 70, a former doctor, Michel Aupetit was ordained a priest at 44 and a bishop at 61. He owes his dazzling career to Cardinal André Vingt-Trois, Archbishop of Paris (2005-2017) of whom he was the Vicar General, and to the former Apostolic Nuncio in France (2009-2019) Luigi Ventura, sentenced in December 2020 for assaults sexual.

His appointment in 2017 to the Parisian headquarters surprised even among the ranks of the Conference of Bishops of France (CEF) where the man is not liked. Some consider, among the bishops as among the Parisian priests, that the archbishop's costume is cut too big for his shoulders. This prelate can indeed be disagreeable, smug and bombastic, especially when celebrating. Moreover, he often adopts very clear-cut positions both in terms of bioethical laws and societal laws, where he can appear in overhang.

He made enemies on all sides

The Point article overwhelms Michel Aupetit and his methods. Thus is recalled the resignation of its two vicars general at the end of 2020 and in the spring of 2021, both exiled in Lille and Marseille. One of them, Benoist de Sinety, is known for celebrating Johnny Hallyday's funeral in 2017 and for his commitment to migrants. His two collaborators would have slammed the door because of the archbishop's governance and his humiliations towards them.

Parisian Catholics regret his "lack of listening and empathy", according to the weekly. Priests and lay people did not appreciate his message when the Sauvé report was published, believing that the Archbishop of Paris had contented himself with the bare minimum when a strong word was expected.

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But what seems to have precipitated Michel Aupetit's downfall was his management of a few purely Parisian affairs.

At the start of the first confinement, the Archbishop of Paris beheaded the management of the very upscale private high school Saint-Jean-de-Passy, ​​regretting “managerial practices”, sources of “suffering”. This affair aroused a lot of emotion among the parents of students, divided between opinions for and against the head of the establishment and the prefect of the terminals dismissed, as well as in the ultra-conservative sphere and the extreme right social networks. Especially since at the beginning of 2021, justice declared innocent the director and the prefect of the final years sacked by the archbishop.

I've still never eaten chicken and waffles before so I don't understand how to eat it. Do you put syrup on chicken? That sounds weird to me

— Squirtle Squad Fri Jan 22 23:29:57 +0000 2021

At the beginning of 2021, it was the turn of the Pastoral Center Halles-Beaubourg (CPHB) within the parish of Saint-Merry to be purely and simply dissolved by Michel Aupetit. Saint-Merry was renowned in Paris as a place of openness towards LGBT+ people, remarried divorcees, migrants. For a time under the responsibility of Benoist de Sinety, the Archbishop of Paris decided to install the Community of Sant'Egidio there, close to the poor, and to drive out the 500 regular faithful invested in the CPHB.

Finally, Michel Aupetit decided this summer to restrict the possibility of attending masses celebrated in the ancient rite, in Latin. He thus strictly implemented the motu proprio Traditionis Custodes of Pope Francis, which no longer allows the extraordinary form to be celebrated freely but under conditions. This decision by the Archbishop of Paris also scandalized traditionalist circles, who rather liked Michel Aupetit because of his intransigence in the moral field.

The drop of water after the overflow of the vase

In all these cases, the various actors regret the absence of dialogue from Michel Aupetit, his theological weaknesses, his decisions taken alone. These various difficulties were brought to the attention of the Apostolic Nuncio in Paris, Celestino Migliore, as well as a compromising email – this is in any case what Le Point notes in its investigation.

It would be an email from 2012 intended for a woman, sent apparently inadvertently to her secretary, who kept it to herself. According to the weekly, this email – known to Parisian priests – would leave no room for doubt: Michel Aupetit would have maintained “an intimate relationship with this woman, an affair which is a matter of her private life [and] concerns two consenting adults”.

For his part, the Archbishop of Paris recognizes a "behavior vis-à-vis her [which] may have seemed ambiguous, thus implying the existence between us of an intimate relationship and sexual relations, which which I strongly refute. He also admits having, even before the publication of the Le Point investigation, handed over his charge to François. Finally, he declared on Radio Notre-Dame to have “suffered a shock”, not imagining to be surrounded by so many enemies.

Risks and inconsistencies

Several questions remain. On the one hand, having knowledge of this email in 2012, why did Cardinal Vingt-Trois despite everything push the appointment of Michel Aupetit to the Parisian see? It was taking the risk that the information would come out publicly one day – even if Michel Aupetit denies any connection. It was to take the risk of weakening the Church in Paris, and therefore in France. André Vingt-Trois has demonstrated, in this matter, lightness and a patent lack of discernment. In Le Point, the sociologist of religions and editor Jean-Louis Schlegel notes that "French Catholicism is collapsing" and sees in this affair a "symptom" of this collapse.

Let us add that voices were raised to be surprised at this resignation for supposed relationship with a woman when not a bishop resigned after the report of Ciase. It was also an opportunity to question the celibacy of priests even though, in the Aupetit affair, it had nothing to do. Moreover, the Archbishop of Paris seems to have opted for celibacy rather than for a commitment to a loving relationship, incompatible in the Church with the priestly vocation.

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Moreover, why have you kept this compromising email for so many years and above all: why is it coming out today? If the Archbishop of Paris is naturally destabilized by this scandal, the faithful and ecclesiastics support him. They see it as a conspiracy, a case set up from scratch to obtain the miter of Michel Aupetit while the Church in France is at its worst since the Sauvé report.

Francis accepts the resignation

This Thursday, December 2, Pope Francis accepted the resignation of Archbishop Aupetit. We know that he does not like having to act in haste, forced by events, but the situation forced him to decide quickly, the siege of Paris being emblematic and one of the most important in France. Its archbishop is one of the privileged Catholic interlocutors of the public authorities, consulted on a certain number of subjects. However, in this case, Michel Aupetit has lost all credibility and therefore all authority. It seemed hard to imagine that he would remain in place until his 75th birthday in 2026, at the risk of further increasing the collapse of the Church in France.

François appointed an apostolic administrator, Georges Pontier, former archbishop of Marseilles and ex-president of the CEF, to manage the diocese during the vacancy of the see, as in Lyon after the withdrawal and resignation of Cardinal Barbarin. Beyond this affair, it is the whole process of episcopal appointments that needs to be reformed, plagued by cronyism and nepotism. This is what the nuncio Migliore, responsible for communicating the lists of candidates to Rome, seems to have understood, if we are to believe the latest nominations. Whether this will be enough to contain the collapse of French Catholicism remains to be seen.