Pope Francis ruled out that “sufficient elements“On Thursday, August 18, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni announced the opening of a new investigation against Canadian Cardinal Mark Welle, accused of sexual abuse in his country.
“Pope Francis declares there are insufficient elements to launch a canonical investigation (religious, editor’s note) by Cardinal Ouellet into the person F.“As the complaining party was named, the press spokesman said in a brief statement.
Letter to the Pope
Marc Ouellet, 78, and current prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, one of the Vatican’s most important government functions, allegedly touched the practitioner inappropriately between 2008 and 2010, when he was archbishop of Quebec, according to allegations that appear in the resulting document. From a class action mandated by the Supreme Court of this French-speaking state last May. It wasn’t until 2020 that F., who says he was also sexually abused by another priest, spoke to the Diocese of Quebec’s sexual abuse advisory committee.
This organization then advised him to write a letter to Pope Francis. In 2021, the Sovereign Pontiff responds by appointing “Father Jacques Servain to investigate Cardinal Marc Ouellet“. And it is on the basis of the elements collected by Father Cerve that the Pope decided to exclude the investigation against Bishop Ouellette, notes Matteo Bruni. The spokesperson elaborates that Father Servay, whose preliminary investigation was completed due to lack of sufficient elements, was contacted again by the Pope, who was assured that there was no reason to continue the procedure.
Unusually, the statement, written in Italian, quotes in French Father Servay, a Jesuit like the pope himself. “There are no grounds for starting an investigation on the fact of sexual harassment against F., the person with the card. Mark Ouellette“, He says. “Neither in his report written and sent to the Holy Father, nor in the testimony via Zoom that I later gathered in the presence of a member of the diocesan ad hoc committee, did this person make any accusations that would provide material for such an investigation.– wrote Father Servais, quoting the press release of the Vatican.
Source: Le Figaro
