At a farewell Mass in Paris on December 10 , Archbishop Michel Aupetit directly addressed media reports claiming that he had “lost himself for love.”
Preaching at a Mass of thanksgiving at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in the French capital on Dec. 10, the archbishop referred to a headline published by the magazine Paris Match.
“A journalist wrote ‘the archbishop of Paris lost himself for love,’” he said. “It’s true, it’s true. But she forgot the end of the sentence. The complete sentence is ‘the archbishop of Paris lost himself for love of Christ.’”
Aupetit’s words were applauded by the congregation of around 2,000 people gathered in the city’s second-largest church after Notre-Dame Cathedral.
The 70-year-old archbishop, who had a late vocation to the priesthood after working as a doctor, said: “Yesterday, I lost my life for the love of Christ when I entered the seminary. Today, I lost my life for the love of Christ. Tomorrow, I will again lose my life for the love of Christ. For I remember those words of the Lord, ‘whoever loses his life for my sake will save it.’”
Aupetit served as archbishop of Paris from his installation on Jan. 6, 2018, to December 2, when Pope Francis accepted his resignation.
He asked the Pope to decide his future after the French weekly magazine Le Point published a report portraying the archbishop as a divisive and authoritarian figure.
The report raised concerns about Aupetit’s contacts with a woman dating back to 2012, when he was vicar general of the Archdiocese of Paris. Aupetit told Le Point that he was not in a relationship with the woman.
He said: “My behaviour towards her may have been ambiguous, thus suggesting the existence between us of an intimate relationship and sexual relations, which I strongly refute … I decided not to see her again and I informed her.” Lust is not the worst of the seven deadly sins, according to Pope Francis.
“I accepted the resignation of Aupetit not on the altar of truth, but on the altar of hypocrisy.” “It was a failing against the sixth commandment (You shall not commit adultery) but not a total one, one of small caresses, massage given to his secretary — that is what the accusation is,” Francis clarified about Aupetit’s actions. “There is a sin there but not the worst kind.”
(See Focus)