Accused nuncio to France resigns post

December 17, 2019 CNA Daily News News Briefs 1 Print

Vatican City, Dec 17, 2019 / 05:27 am (CNA).- Pope Francis Tuesday accepted Archbishop Luigi Ventura’s resignation as apostolic nuncio to France. Ventura was accused of sexual assault earlier this year.

The Vatican revoked Ventura’s diplomatic immunity in July, paving the way for a possible trial.

Ventura turned 75 on Dec. 9, the mandatory age at which bishops submit their resignation to the pope. The pope then accepts the resignation at his discretion.

French news agency I.Media reported at the end of September that Ventura had returned to Rome and was living in a residence for elderly priests near St. Peter’s Square.

He is accused of having inappropriately touched a young male staffer of Paris City Hall during a Jan. 17 reception for the New Year address of Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo. That accusation was under investigation by Parisian authorities but has not yet gone to trial.

After the initial allegation was made against in Ventura in March, he faced a second accusation of sexual misconduct against an adult male relating to his time in Canada in 2008.

Christian Vachon, who was 32 at the time of the alleged incident, claims Ventura touched his buttocks at least twice during a banquet held at the Basilica of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, near Quebec.

Ventura served as nuncio to France from 2009.

He was ordained a priest of the Diocese of Brescia in 1969. He entered the diplomatic service of the Holy See in 1978 and has served in Brazil, Bolivia, and the United Kingdom. From 1984 to 1995 he worked at the Secretariat of State’s Section for Relations with States.

After his episcopal consecration in 1995, Ventura served as nuncio to Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Niger, Chile, and Canada, before his transfer to France.

 

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Dolan: Pope’s reported remarks to gay man, while ‘beautiful,’ could require clarification  

May 22, 2018 CNA Daily News 4

New York City, N.Y., May 22, 2018 / 08:30 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- The Archbishop of New York said Tuesday that while some recent comments about homosexuality attributed to Pope Francis are “orthodox teaching,” the pope’s reported remarks could require clarification.

Cardinal Timothy Dolan affirmed the pope’s recent affirmation of God’s love for a gay man with whom the pontiff visited in Rome, saying: “Jesus would have said that, and so would I. That’s conservative, traditional, Catholic, orthodox teaching. The ‘Catechism’ insists on that.”

“While any sexual expression outside of a man and woman in marriage is contrary to God’s purpose, so is not treating anyone, including a gay person, with anything less than dignity and respect,” Dolan added, speaking May 22 during his weekly radio show on Sirius XM’s The Catholic Channel.

“What he says is beautiful, don’t you think?” Dolan asked.

The remarks were a response to questions about  Juan Carlos Cruz, a Chilean victim of sexual abuser Fr. Fernando Karadima, who told the Spanish newspaper El Pais on Friday that Pope Francis told him that it did not matter that he was gay.

“He told me ‘Juan Carlos, that you are gay does not matter. God made you like that and he loves you like that and I do not care. The Pope loves you as you are, you have to be happy with who you are,’” Cruz recalled.

Asked about the most controversial aspect of the Holy Father’s remarks, regarding whether God wills that someone experience same sex attraction, Dolan was circumspect, citing “ongoing debate” among “professional circles.”

“Is one born that way, or is it – is it nature or nurture?… I don’t think the Holy Father would feel competent to speak on that.”

Dolan noted that while he had no reason to doubt Cruz’s account, the pope’s reported remarks were “third hand: what the pope said to him, he said to the press, so one would want to get a clarification.”

He said his remarks were qualified by “a little bit of ‘wait and see’” adding “let’s find out exactly what the Holy Father said.”

 

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