PARIS
\nFrance\u2019s Catholic Church said on Thursday the pope had accepted the resignation of Paris archbishop Michel Aupetit who asked for forgiveness after reports over a relationship with a woman.
\nThe 70-year-old cleric, who is bound by the church\u2019s celibacy rule, has denied any intimate relationship with the unnamed woman in comments to Le Point magazine, though he acknowledged his behaviour may have been ambiguous.
\n\u201cI have been deeply troubled by the attacks on me … I pray for those who, maybe, have wished bad things onto me, as Christ has taught us,\u201d he said in a statement on Thursday.
\n\u201cI ask forgiveness from those I might have hurt.\u201d
\nAupetit\u2019s departure comes as the Catholic Church in France is reeling from the publication in October of an investigation showing that clerics sexually abused more than 200,000 children over the past 70 years.
\nThe archdiocese of Paris, one of 15 archdioceses in France, is in charge of the Ile-de-France region around the capital.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
PARIS France\u2019s Catholic Church said on Thursday the pope had accepted the resignation of Paris archbishop Michel Aupetit who asked for forgiveness after reports over a relationship with a woman. The 70-year-old cleric, who is bound by the church\u2019s celibacy rule, has denied any intimate relationship with the unnamed woman in comments to Le Point […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-230831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n