VATICAN CITY – Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet on Tuesday stated he was suing a girl who accused him of sexual assault greater than a decade in the past when he was the archbishop of Quebec.
Ouellet, now a distinguished Vatican official, was named in August in a category motion lawsuit in opposition to the Quebec Catholic archdiocese that alleged circumstances of sexual assault by some 88 clergy and employees working there beginning in 1940.
He denied the accusations on the again and again in an announcement saying the lawsuit on Tuesday.
In the submitting within the Quebec Superior Court in August, an nameless complainant alleged that Ouellet had inappropriately touched her and had made feedback that made her really feel uncomfortable between 2008 and 2010, when she was an intern in her 20s within the archdiocese.
A duplicate of the lawsuit, seen by Reuters, says the cardinal is looking for $100,000 in damages from a girl recognized solely as “Ms. F” and that he would donate any quantity received to “the fight against the sexual abuse of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada.”
The Vatican stated in August that following a preliminary inner overview of the accusations, Pope Francis had determined there was inadequate proof to open a Church investigation into the allegations.
“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,” Ouellet stated in Tuesday’s assertion. “This inappropriate association, intentionally constructed and widely spread for improper purposes, must be denounced.”
Ouellet stated he was taking authorized motion for defamation earlier than the courts of Quebec “in order to prove the falsity of the allegations made against me and to restore my reputation and honor.” — Reuters
