Cardinal Ouellet said in a statement on Tuesday that he was suing a woman who accused him of sexual assault more than a decade ago when he was the archbishop of Quebec.
A prominent figure at the Vatican, Canadian Cardinal Marc Armand Ouellet is the Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops and President of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
His statement was a response to “unfounded accusations of alleged sexual assault” made against him in August 2022.
The accusations came as part of a class action lawsuit against the Quebec archdiocese that alleged cases of sexual assault by some 88 clergy and staff working there starting in 1940.
In the filing in the Quebec Superior Court in August, an anonymous complainant alleged that Ouellet had inappropriately touched her and had made comments that made her feel uncomfortable between 2008 and 2010, when she was an intern in her 20s in the archdiocese.
In his statement, Ouellet said he has filed a lawsuit for defamation emphasising the “slanderous and defamatory accusations unfairly made against me.”
According to Reuters, a copy of the lawsuit says the cardinal is seeking $100,000 in damages from a woman identified only as “Ms. F” and that he would donate any amount won to “the fight against the sexual abuse of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada”.
In his statement, he also said: “Following a preliminary investigation, Pope Francis determined that there was not sufficient evidence to initiate a canonical investigation against me for sexual assault.”
The Cardinal explained that he is “taking legal action for defamation before the courts of Québec in order to prove the falsity of the allegations” made against him, and to restore his reputation and honour.
He also stressed that the class action undertaken against him and other members of the clergy has resulted in an “inappropriate association, intentionally constructed and widely spread for improper purposes,” and must be denounced.
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