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In the transcript made by the Holy See of the press conference given by Pope Francis on his return from his trip, Monday, December 6, the Pope’s mention of the secretary of Archbishop Michel Aupetit has been deleted. But the rest of his speech was retained.
Did Pope Francis say too much or too little about Archbishop Michel Aupetit during his press conference on his return from his trip? In the transcript (in Italian) published by the Holy See of the pontiff’s exchange with journalists that took place on the plane on Monday, December 6, there is no mention of the secretary of the former archbishop of Paris.
To the question of a journalist asking him about the reasons for the resignation of Archbishop Aupetit, Pope Francis replied:
Before answering, I will say: do the investigation. Do the investigation. Because there is the danger of telling us “he has been condemned.” Who condemned him? It is the public opinion, it is the rumor. But what did he do? We don’t know, something. If you know why, say so. If not, I can’t answer. You will know why.
Because there was a fault on his part, a fault against the 6th commandment, not in a total way, but little caresses, massages that he made to his secretary. That’s the accusation. It is a sin.
The words “to his secretary” were thus deleted from the text published by the Holy See. The secretary of the Archbishop of Paris was never personally concerned by these attentions. If accusations have indeed been made against Archbishop Aupetit concerning an “ambiguous” behavior with a woman, the woman in question appears not to be his secretary. The Holy See and Pope Francis have corrected this error after the fact by not including this passage.
More recently, an article published by Paris Match on Thursday, December 9, recounts, with a photo, that the former archbishop of Paris had lunch and a walk in the forest on Monday, December 6, with one of his advisers, who happens to be a theologian and a consecrated virgin. Again, her presence in Bishop Aupetit’s entourage is well known, as she is a member of various commissions, a professor at the Collège des Bernardins, and has even been appointed by Pope Francis as an “expert” of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. The former archbishop of Paris strongly refutes these insinuations, describing the methods used by Paris Match as “slanderous and nauseating” and which could lead to legal proceedings.
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