Pope rules out investigation of cardinal accused of sexual assault in Canada

Pope Francis has ruled out, for lack of sufficient elements, the opening of a new investigation against the Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, accused of sexual assault in his country, announced Thursday the Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni.

 

Pope Francis declares that there are not sufficient elements to open a canonical (religious) investigation for sexual assault by Cardinal Ouellet against the person F., as the complainant has been named, the spokesman said in a brief statement.

 

Marc Ouellet, 78, the current prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, one of the most important offices in the Vatican government, allegedly touched an intern inappropriately between 2008 and 2010 when he was archbishop of Quebec City, according to accusations in a document from the class-action lawsuit authorized by the Superior Court of that French-speaking province last May.

 

 

 

 

Neither in his written report sent to the Holy Father, nor in the testimony via Zoom that I subsequently gathered in the presence of a member of the diocesan ad hoc committee, did this person make an accusation that would provide material for such an investigation, Father Servais wrote, quoted in the Vatican statement.