VATICAN CITY: Canadian cardinal Marc Ouellet on Tuesday announced he has filed a defamation suit in Quebec province against a woman who accused him of sexual assault.
“I am undertaking today a legal action for defamation before the Quebec courts in order to demonstrate the falsity of the allegations made against me and to restore my reputation and my honor,“ Ouellet said in a statement.
The 78-year-old prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, who was once considered a strong candidate to be pope, was named in a class action suit targeting more than 80 members of the clergy in the archdiocese of Quebec.
He was specifically accused of inappropriate touching of an intern between 2008 and 2010 when he was archbishop of Quebec -- which he has rejected.
“I have never made reprehensible gestures or behaved like other members of the clergy targeted by the class action. This inappropriate association, made intentionally and widely disseminated for improper purposes, must be denounced,“ he again argued on Tuesday.
“Any financial compensation received in the context of these procedures will be paid in full for the benefit of the fight against sexual abuse among Indigenous people in Canada,“ Ouellet addded.
Contacted by AFP, the plaintiff’s lawyer Alain Arsenault said she had yet to receive a copy of the defamation claim, but added: “Any procedure on his part will be heavily contested.”
The claims against Ouellet in the civil suit, which the Quebec supreme court ruled could go ahead in May, are among the testimonies of 101 people who say they were sexually assaulted by members of the clergy and church staff from 1940 to today.
The Vatican said it ruled out a formal church investigation. - AFP