Luigi Ventura is an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church who was apostolic nuncio to France from 2009 to 2018. He became a nuncio and archbishop in 1995 and served in several African countries, Chile, and Canada before being posted to Paris. Beginning in January 2019 he was under investigation by French authorities for sexual crimes. In July 2019, the Vatican lifted his diplomatic immunity to allow him to face criminal charges. He was allowed to relocate to Rome; Pope Francis accepted his resignation in December 2019. His criminal trial will be held in Paris starting on November 10, 2020.
In January 2019 the French authorities opened an investigation into Ventura after a junior official at Paris City Hall accused him of molestation. Ventura has not made comment on the allegations. On 15 February 2019, Le Monde reported that a young male employed by the office of the mayor of Paris had filed a complaint for sexual assault against Ventura and that authorities had launched a formal inquiry in January. The city employee, Mathieu de La Souchère, and two other accusers using aliases, have asked French officials to ask the Vatican to waive Ventura's diplomatic immunity. French European Minister Nathalie Loiseau said she expects the Vatican to allow Ventura to be tried. On 22 February a Canadian man, Christian Vachon, charged Ventura had touched him improperly in July 2008 when he was 32. Vachon said Ventura's successor as Nuncio to Canada, Archbishop Luigi Bonazzi, called him the day he registered his complaint to discuss it. Ventura allowed himself to be questioned by French police in April. At his own request, Ventura met with his four accusers on 22–23 May and denied their charges. The accusers' attorneys were not allowed to ask him questions. On 8 July a Vatican spokesperson said the Holy See had informed French authorities a week earlier that it was waiving Ventura's diplomatic immunity. He called it "an extraordinary gesture". Le Monde reported it was the first withdrawal of diplomatic immunity on the part of the Vatican in modern history. As of 30 September 2019, Ventura was living at a residence for retired priests in Rome, still subject to French investigators and prosecution. At the time his France trial was announced in July 2020, Ventura was still under investigation for the alleged 2008 incident in Ottawa, Canada was well.
Resignation
Pope Francis accepted his resignation on 17 December 2019, which Ventura had submitted as required on his 75th birthday. Such resignations are either accepted by Pope Francis quickly, as in Ventura’s case, or sometimes he kept bishops in their jobs longer. The fact that Ventura resignation was announced on the same day as Francis’ abuse reforms does not seem to be a coincidence. The resignation and its acceptance had been anticipated since Ventura had been relieved of his responsibilities and moved to Rome in September. Libération, which published some of the earliest complaints against Ventura, called the idea of retiring without referencing the criminal charges against Ventura "a beautiful example of Jesuitry".
On July 23, 2020, the Paris Prosecutor's Office announced that Ventura had been criminally charged with sexually assaulting four men in 2018 and 2019 and will stand trial in Paris starting November 10, 2020.
