Cardinal Marc Ouellet has filed a defamation lawsuit in Quebec courts contending that a woman wrongly accused him of sexual assault in a class-action sex abuse lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec.
“I have never been guilty of these reprehensible behaviors, much less of those alleged against other members of the clergy cited in the class action,” the cardinal said in a Dec. 13 statement accompanying the lawsuit. “This inappropriate association, intentionally constructed and widely spread for improper purposes, must be denounced.”
“Having preliminarily made sure to protect the plaintiff’s anonymity by obtaining an order to that effect, today I am taking legal action for defamation before the courts of Québec in order to prove the falsity of the allegations made against me and to restore my reputation and honor,” Ouellet said.
The 78-year-old cardinal served as archbishop of Quebec from 2002 to 2010. He is currently prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, a key Vatican body that helps the pope evaluate prospective candidates to be named Catholic bishop.
Ouellet was accused of sexual assault by a woman identified pseudonymously as “F.” in an August class-action civil suit filed by multiple plaintiffs against the Archdiocese of Quebec.
The lawsuit against the archdiocese includes the testimony of 101 people who say they were sexually assaulted by clerics or Church staff from 1940 to the present. Eighty-eight clerics are accused in the suit.
Justin Wee, one of the lawyers...
India accounts for about one-third of the world's child marriages, according to data from the UN's children agency UNICEF, but a video circulating online does not show a girl marrying a man in the ...