A day after the embassy’s statement came to light, Gusching admitted to having a relationship which lasted “from around 2015 to 2022”.
The ex-bishop said that was “the only affair” he had committed, insisting that the “disgusting” push for his resignation was motivated by “jealousies”.
“They want my head,” the ex-bishop told the local Journal de L’Est republicain paper in an interview published today.
Asked whether the relationship was consensual, Gusching said: “Yes, she was a woman of age”.
The Vatican has ordered Gusching to “refrain from any liturgical celebrations and public pastoral activities”.
Catholic bishops are strictly forbidden from having any sexual relationships, though the Church has been rocked in recent decades by a litany of child sex abuse scandals.
-Agence France-Presse