Less than two months after accepting his resignation, Pope Francis received Archbishop Michel Aupetit, archbishop emeritus of Paris, in an audience on February 3, 2022, a Vatican source confirmed to I.MEDIA. The French prelate’s visit to the Vatican was announced by La Croix earlier in the week.
Following a series of articles in the French press questioning his governance and private life, Archbishop Aupetit decided to hand over his office to Pope Francis on November 26, making it clear that he was not resigning, but simply leaving the decision about his future as the head of the Paris Archdiocese up to the Pope.
Less than a week later, on December 2, while on a visit to Cyprus and Athens, the Pontiff made it known, via the official bulletin of the Vatican press office, that he had accepted the resignation of the Parisian prelate.
Questioned by reporters a few days later during a press conference after his trip, Francis explained his decision, stating that “gossip” made governance impossible for Archbishop Aupetit. “This is why I accepted Aupetit’s resignation, not on the altar of truth, but on the altar of hypocrisy,” he said.
The Pope also spoke – imprecisely – about the accusations brought against the archbishop of Paris, speaking of a “breach of the sixth commandment.” He said at the time that he didn’t know exactly what the prelate had been accused of, and urged the journalists with whom he spoke to investigate the situation. He added that “sins of the flesh are not the gravest sin: the gravest sins are those that have more of an ‘angelic’ character; pride, hatred… these are the most grave.”
