Canadian Cardinal facing class action sexual abuse charges

AFP – Montreal -Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet, who holds a high position in the Vatican government, was accused of sexual abuse in a class action lawsuit made public Tuesday in Canada and involving more than 80 members of the Quebec diocese.

The cleric, current prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, is accused of having inappropriately touched an intern between 2008 and 2010 while he was archbishop of Quebec, according to documents of the legal action admitted by the Superior Court of this French-speaking province last May.

The revelations come three weeks after a visit by Pope Francis to Canada, during which he apologized for abuses perpetrated by members of the Church in residential schools for indigenous people.

Contacted by AFP, the Quebec diocese said it had “taken note of the accusations against Cardinal Marc Ouellet” and did not want to “make any comment on the matter at all.”

The accusations are among the testimonies of 101 people “who were sexually assaulted” by members of the clergy and lay employees between June 1940 and the present, court documents state.

In the case of Marc Ouellet, a woman identified with the letter “F.” claims to have been abused by the cardinal several times.

According to her complaint, Cardinal Ouellet had “kissed” her and “slid his hand” down her back “up to her buttocks” in 2010.

In February, during an important symposium at the Vatican in the presence of Pope Francis, Cardinal Ouellet alluded to the “drama of sexual abuse committed by clerics” and criticized “criminal behavior that was covered up for too long to protect the institution.”

“We are all torn and humbled by these crucial questions that challenge us every day as members of the Church,” he said then.