Cardinal Aveline faces controversy in Marseille amid abuse allegations and church sales, prompting calls for resignation and Vatican intervention.
Newsroom (19/09/2025, Gaudium Press ) In Marseille a storm of controversy has engulfed the Archdiocese of Marseille, placing Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, the influential Archbishop and President of the French Bishops’ Conference, at its epicenter. What began as whispers of ecclesiastical mismanagement has erupted into a full-throated demand for accountability, with a local Catholic collective invoking the Vatican’s intervention to force Aveline’s resignation. This escalating crisis, fueled by a damning investigative series in Paris Match and grievances over the diocese’s handling of sacred properties, underscores profound questions about transparency, pastoral integrity, and the Church’s commitment to safeguarding the vulnerable. As the faithful grapple with these revelations, the affair threatens to reverberate far beyond the Mediterranean shores, challenging the very foundations of episcopal leadership in contemporary France.
The catalyst for this upheaval arrived on September 18, 2025, with the publication of Paris Match‘s explosive first installment in a series titled “Église de Marseille, le poids du silence” (“Church of Marseille: The Weight of Silence”). Penned with meticulous detail, the article unearths a decade-old internal report that casts a troubling light on Father Xavier Manzano, a priest who ascended to the role of vicar general – effectively Cardinal Aveline’s right-hand man – despite documented concerns about his conduct. Drawing from ecclesiastical documents, witness testimonies, and direct interviews, the piece paints a portrait of a diocese where grave interrogations were seemingly sidelined in favor of institutional loyalty.
At the heart of the investigation is a 2015 letter penned by Luc-Marie Lalanne, a respected canon lawyer and ecclesiastical judge, addressed to then-Archbishop Georges Pontier. The correspondence, dated December 24, 2015, emerged during Lalanne’s oversight of a marriage annulment case involving a separated couple pseudonymously referred to as the Martins. What began as a routine canonical proceeding unraveled into a web of unease surrounding Manzano’s role as the family’s spiritual guide and Louis Martin’s (the husband’s) personal director.
Witness accounts detailed in the article describe Manzano’s immersion in the Martin household as “excessively close,” bordering on intrusive. He frequented Louis Martin’s home, participated in family vacations with Louis and his children, handled domestic chores, and even hosted the children – then aged 5 and 12 – for overnight stays at his residence within the archbishopric. More alarmingly, Manzano administered confessions to these minors, a practice Lalanne deemed inappropriate given the priest’s enmeshed relationship with the family. The children’s mother, Mme Martin, voiced her disquiet in a 2014 letter to Manzano, imploring him to maintain a “just distance” from her offspring. When met with silence, she escalated her plea to Archbishop Pontier, who acknowledged Manzano’s “problems of affective maturity” and vowed intervention.
Yet, according to the Paris Match report, tangible action appeared scant. Lalanne summoned Manzano to testify before the ecclesiastical tribunal, but the priest demurred, citing the sanctity of confessional confidentiality – a rationale Lalanne dismissed as evasive, arguing that the discussion could proceed without breaching sacred seals. In his defense to Paris Match journalists, Manzano characterized his stays at Louis Martin’s home as acts of “friendship,” insisting that the children’s visits occurred solely with paternal consent. He attributed the allegations to the acrimony of a “very difficult” divorce, rife with rumors propagated by Mme Martin’s circle, and denied any direct confrontation over scandalous behavior.
The article’s revelations extend beyond this singular case, hinting at a pattern of opacity within the Marseille diocese. It notes that Manzano’s promotion to vicar general in 2020 came under Cardinal Aveline, who, per Vatican sources, was apprised of Lalanne’s letter beforehand. Father Brunet, another vicar general, confirmed to Paris Match that Aveline engaged Manzano in a “serious conversation,” concluding that the concerns did not disqualify him from the elevated post. Broader allusions in the piece tie Manzano and Aveline to testimonies concerning the mishandling of abuse cases spanning three decades, aligning with the 2019 establishment of the Commission indépendante sur les abus sexuels dans l’Église (Ciase), an independent body Archbishop Pontier helped initiate to confront sexual abuse in the French Church.
Compounding these disclosures, the Saint-Maurice collective – a grassroots group of Marseille faithful dedicated to preserving the Church of Saint-Maurice in the Pont-de-Vivaux district – dispatched a letter to the Vatican on September 17, 2025, explicitly demanding Aveline’s ouster from his dual roles as Archbishop and Bishops’ Conference President. Signed by Bernard Franqui, the collective’s head, the missive laments a “serious crisis of confidence and credibility” for which Aveline bears “heavy responsibility.” It accuses the diocese of forsaking parish churches, stripping them of sacred artifacts, and offloading them to “controversial real estate developers” in a move driven by “purely financial logic” rather than pastoral vision.
Central to their grievance is the recent sale of the Saint-Maurice church, a 1964 edifice shuttered since 2019 due to maintenance woes. The diocese justified the transaction as a pragmatic step for “security reasons,” envisioning the site’s repurposing for “social or community activity” to benefit the neighborhood. However, the collective decries this as a “spiritual and patrimonial betrayal,” robbing parishioners of their heritage and humiliating the community. A petition launched by the group, garnering 694 signatures to date, urges that the property retain its multicultural essence, resisting conversion into housing or a logistics warehouse. The letter contrasts this divestment with the diocese’s substantial investments elsewhere – 2.8 million euros for Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, 3 million for Saint-Louis in the northern districts, and 1.6 million for Notre-Dame-Limite in 2026 – portraying it as selective neglect.
The collective’s indictment does not stop at bricks and mortar; it weaves in the Paris Match exposé to decry the “silence about sexual abuse” allegedly perpetuated under Aveline’s watch. The article extends its scrutiny to other figures, including Father Jean-Pierre Sighieri, convicted in a later scandal. It recounts a 2014 encounter where David, a former seminarian at the Saint-Luc establishment in Aix-en-Provence (under Marseille’s jurisdiction), approached Aveline during his auxiliary bishop ordination, alleging abuse by Sighieri. According to David, Aveline deflected the claim without follow-up. The piece implicates additional clergy like Father Jean-Pierre Hours and Father Jean-Christophe de Dreuille in unaddressed incidents dating to the 1990s, with some advancing in rank amid delayed reporting and lenient sanctions. Sighieri, for instance, climbed the hierarchy for nine years before a two-year prison term and ministerial ban.
In a pointed summary, the collective asserts that these episodes reveal “governance marked by opacity, silence, and the absence of evangelical courage,” with unpunished assaults and predatory behavior going unchecked. This narrative arrives at a poignant juncture: mere months ago, in May 2025, Aveline was touted as a frontrunner to succeed Pope Francis, his progressive stance on interfaith dialogue and social justice earning papal favor. Today, with Pope Leo XIV that prospect dims amid these shadows.
The Diocese of Marseille swiftly countered on September 18 with a press release, staunchly defending Aveline and refuting the allegations. On the Sighieri matter, it posits that any information relayed during the January 2014 ordination festivities (not August, as misstated in some reports) would have prompted Aveline to schedule a formal meeting, per his habit. Regarding Manzano, the statement emphatically denies any insinuation of sexual violence or ambiguity, deeming such suggestions “profoundly unfair and unacceptable.” It highlights written testimonies from the now-adult Martin children, who express gratitude toward Manzano and absolve him of wrongdoing. The diocese reaffirms its anti-abuse stance, noting Aveline’s engagements with the Instance nationale indépendante de reconnaissance et de réparation (INIRR) and Commission for Recognition and Reparation (CRR), alongside planned October meetings with victims’ associations.
As Paris Match teases a second episode delving deeper into Marseille’s diocesan woes – timed against the 81st anniversary of the city’s liberation on August 31, 2025 – the affair evokes broader reflections on the Church’s post-Ciase era. While the concerns surrounding Manzano emphasize inappropriate boundaries rather than explicit abuse, they amplify calls for rigorous oversight to protect minors and families from emotional overreach under spiritual pretexts. The Saint-Maurice collective’s Vatican appeal, meanwhile, signals a groundswell of lay discontent, demanding that sacred spaces and moral imperatives transcend fiscal expediency.
In this crucible, Cardinal Aveline has pledged to prioritize the fight against abuse, yet the weight of silence – as Paris Match aptly terms it – lingers. Whether Rome heeds the collective’s plea remains uncertain, but the faithful of Marseille, from the vibrant Pont-de-Vivaux to the hallowed halls of Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde, await a reckoning that restores trust and justice. Gaudium Press will continue monitoring developments in this unfolding saga.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Paris Match, La Croix and La Provence
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