Cardinal Marc Ouellet has said it was a “clumsy mistake” to place a $50 banknote inside a woman’s sweater during a hug.
Cardinal Ouellet, 81, the former prefect of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Bishops and once widely regarded as papabile in 2013, is currently involved in civil proceedings before the Superior Court of Quebec in Montréal in a lawsuit against Paméla Groleau. The cardinal has said since the beginning of the trial that allegations made by Groleau in 2022 have gravely harmed his honour and reputation. He is seeking damages of 100,000 Canadian dollars.
The proceedings are not a criminal trial and no criminal charges have ever been brought against the Canadian prelate. Instead, the court has been asked to determine whether Groleau defamed him when she named him as part of a class-action lawsuit involving allegations of misconduct within the Archdiocese of Quebec.
Groleau has alleged that Cardinal Ouellet touched her without consent on three occasions between 2008 and 2010 while she was working or training as a lay pastoral agent. During her testimony earlier in the trial she said that one incident in 2010 involved the cardinal running his hand down her back to the top of her buttocks. Under cross-examination she indicated that this final incident was the only one she personally considered to amount to sexual assault. Cardinal Ouellet has firmly denied all accusations.
The litigation has taken an unexpected turn during the hearings. Two additional women have appeared as witnesses for Groleau’s legal team, offering accounts of what they describe as inappropriate behaviour by the cardinal in earlier decades.
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