Pope rules out investigation against Canadian cardinal
According to the pontiff, there are not “sufficient elements” to investigate Cardinal Marc Ouellet again. He was accused of inappropriate touching of a trainee.
Pope Francis speaks with Cardinal Marc Ouellet of Canada at the Vatican on February 17, 2022.
AFP
Pope Francis has ruled out, for lack of “sufficient evidence”, the opening of a new investigation against Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, accused of sexual assault in his country, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni announced on Thursday.
“Pope Francis declares that there are not sufficient elements to open a canonical investigation (religious, editor’s note) for sexual assaults by Cardinal Ouellet against person F.”, as the complainant was named, the spokesperson said in a brief statement.
Marc Ouellet, 78 years old and current prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, one of the most important functions of the Vatican government, allegedly inappropriately touched an intern between 2008 and 2010 when he was archbishop of Quebec, according to charges appearing in a document resulting from the collective action authorized by the Superior Court of this French-speaking province last May.
Not enough elements
It was in 2020 that F., who claims to have also been the victim of sexual assault by another cleric, spoke about it to the advisory committee on sexual abuse of the diocese of Quebec. This organization then recommended that he write a letter to Pope Francis. In 2021, the sovereign pontiff responds by appointing “Father Jacques Servais to investigate Cardinal Marc Ouellet”.
And it is precisely on the basis of the elements gathered by Father Servais that the pope decided to exclude an investigation against Bishop Ouellet, indicates Mr. Bruni.
The spokesman specifies that Father Servais, whose preliminary investigation concluded on the absence of sufficient elements, was again contacted by the pope, who received the assurance that there was no reason to continue the procedure.
Unusually, the statement, written in Italian, quotes statements in French from Father Servais, a Jesuit like the pope himself. “There are no grounds to open an investigation into the sexual assault of person F. by Card. Mr. Ouellet,” he says.
“Neither in his report written and sent to the Holy Father, nor in the testimony via Zoom that I subsequently collected in the presence of a member of the Diocesan Ad Hoc Committee, did this person make an accusation that would provide material to such an investigation,” wrote Father Servais, quoted in the Vatican press release.
AFP
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