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

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