“(...) This theft of images and this montage to suggest suspicion - when there is no matter! - are terrible ”
: in an interview with
La Croix
, this Sunday, December 12, the theologian and consecrated virgin Laetitia Calmeyn firmly responds to the
Paris Match
article
insinuating an alleged hidden connection with the former archbishop of Paris, Mgr Michel Aupetit .
Read alsoMgr Michel Aupetit would he have had another female affair?
This Thursday, December 9, the weekly featured a photo of Bishop Aupetit walking in the woods of Meudon with his friend Laëtitia Calmeyn, titled as follows:
“Monsignor Aupetit, lost for love”
. Other photos and videos "in support" - where we simply see the theologian leaving a restaurant in Viroflay, then walking alongside her -
Paris Match
ensures that the archbishop
"would have lied by omission on his connections feminine ”
to the Pope - who would hate the
“ lie ”
- by
“ ignoring ”
his
“ closeness ”
to this theologian.
“If it had been a man, a priest, alongside Bishop Aupetit, would there have been the same media treatment? Should women in the Church be reduced to objects of suspicion, fantasy, the expression of jealousy or servility? ”
, laments the virgin consecrated in
La Croix
. She continues:
"Does all this mean that, in the Church and in the eyes of the world, a relationship between a man and a woman lived in friendship is unthinkable?"
.
Others, without giving credibility to the insinuations of
Paris Match
, then reproached the archbishop and his advisor for a form of imprudence in organizing this meeting, shortly after the resignation of Mgr Aupetit - following a
Point's
investigation
reporting a compromising email exchanged with another woman, in 2012.
But there again, Laetitia Calmeyn responds bluntly:
"That a person extremely abused lately, who is faced with his resignation, keeps spaces of friendship to go through the ordeal, it is part of the ABC of the faith.
We must not be mistaken about the subject.
Where is the scandal today?
Certainly not in friendship, but in the evil projected onto this friendship. ”
Upcoming legal proceedings
Asked about the follow-up to be given to this publication, the theologian indicates that
“lawyers are exploring all possible legal avenues”
.
“There will be a complaint.
But we have not yet defined precisely the subject of this complaint: invasion of privacy, defamation, slander… We must avoid this happening again
,
”she
says.
From the evening of Wednesday, December 8, Maître Jean Reinhart, lawyer for Bishop Aupetit, declared that his client
"strongly denies false allegations"
and announced that
"adequate legal proceedings"
would be launched.
A counselor criticized, even jealous for her influence on the archbishop
The existence of Laëtitia Calmeyn as a friend and “unofficial” advisor to Bishop Aupetit was no secret in the Parisian Catholic community.
But this confidence placed in him by the Archbishop of Paris aroused a certain number of criticisms, even jealousy.
“I am a teacher at the Notre-Dame faculty of the Collège des Bernardins and I am the director of the ISSR (Higher Institute of Religious Sciences). I am also on the board of the Paris seminary. But I am not part of the team that supports Michel Aupetit in his governance, ”
recalls, in
La Croix
, Laetitia Calmeyn.
This distrust of her, she observes, raises questions about the way women are viewed in the Church:
“in a year, I once went to the archdiocese for a birthday.
There are priests who have important responsibilities in the diocese.
Would we say to ourselves about them: “Hey, he's a man of power?” I'm far from being the only woman, there are others in the various diocesan councils.
And if I happen to be consulted by priests or lay people on one or the other question, it is in the name of my theological skills.
"