“Pope Francis declares that there are insufficient elements to open a canonical investigation into the sexual assault of Cardinal Ouellet,” Vatican Press Office director Matteo Bruni said in a statement.
Bruni explained that these are the conclusions after “the preliminary investigation commissioned by the Pope” to Father Jacques Servais, the theologian in charge of investigating the case, who judged that “there are no elements to start a lawsuit against Cardinal Ouellet for sexual assault”.
The director of the Vatican’s press office also quoted Servais and said that the petitioner had made no “accusation that could fuel such an investigation”, “neither in her written report sent to the Holy Father, nor in the testimony via Zoom”. collected by this priest “in the presence of a member of the diocesan committee”.
Ouellet, one of the Vatican’s most powerful officials, is accused of sexual abuse in Canada by a woman who was interned as a pastoral worker from 2008 to 2010, according to a Radio Canada investigation.
His name appears on a collective complaint involving 87 other church members and brought by 100 victims, many of whom were minors at the time of the events which unfolded largely in the 1950s and 1960s.
At the time of the events, he was archbishop and had the final say on employment.
The complaint against Ouellet was filed directly with the Vatican in 2021 and, although a meeting was scheduled between the Holy See and the victim, a year and a half later the latter claims not to have been informed of the results of the investigation.
The cardinal was called to Rome and appointed in June 2010 prefect of the Dicastery of Bishops, the body that selects these top Church officials and then forwards the names of those chosen to the pope for a final decision. EFE
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