Beleaguered Strasbourg archbishop Luc Ravel has handed in his resignation on 20 April, another French Church leader accused of not smelling enough like his sheep.

“Peace being the supreme good,” he wrote to Pope Francis, “I present my resignation to the Holy Father, for whom I pray every day.”

It has not been peaceful in Strasbourg. Ravel, 65, has been criticised as isolated and authoritarian, more interested in his standing in Paris than his pastors and flock in Alsace.

For example, he skipped the Chrism Mass last year, his annual meeting with about 400 priests from around the eastern French region, to welcome President Emmanuel Macron during the latter’s reelection campaign there.

The archbishop, who entered the prestigious Academy of Moral and Political Sciences last year, was also the only French bishop to openly promise his vote to Macron. All others remained neutral.

Appointed in 2016 and often in Paris,…