(Vatican City) Pope Francis has ruled out, for lack of “sufficient elements”, the opening of a new investigation against Cardinal Marc Ouellet, targeted by allegations of sexual assault, the spokesman of the Vatican announced on Thursday. Vatican Matteo Bruni.
Posted at 11:11 a.m.
Updated at 11:40 a.m.
“Pope Francis declares that there are not sufficient elements to open a canonical investigation (religious, editor’s note) for sexual assault 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 class action authorized by the Superior Court last May.
It was not until 2020 that F., who says he was also 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 recommends 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 Mgr Ouellet, says 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 is no reason to open an investigation for the sexual assault of person F. by Cardinal Marc Ouellet,” he said.
“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 ad hoc diocesan committee, did this person make an accusation that would provide material to such an investigation,” Father Servais wrote, quoted in the Vatican statement.