A judge has ruled in favor of Cardinal Marc Ouellet in a civil defamation lawsuit against a woman who accused him of sexual assault as part of a class-action suit.
In a 52-page judgment issued Aug. 31, Quebec Superior Court Justice Martin Castonguay ordered Ouellet’s accuser to pay the cardinal CA$100,000 (around $72,100) in damages.
Ouellet — who served as prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, advising the pope on the selection of the world’s bishops from 2010 until he retired in 2023 — has said he will donate the money to organizations combating the sexual abuse of Canada’s Indigenous population.
The claims against Ouellet, who was considered among the papabili at the 2013 conclave, were lodged as part of a class-action suit filed by people who said they were victims of clerical abuse in the Archdiocese of Quebec, with allegations dating back as far as 1940.
The allegations against Ouellet were made public in August 2022. The cardinal announced in December 2022 that he was suing a woman for defamation after she accused him of sexual assault. She alleged several incidents of non-consensual physical contact between 2008 and 2010, when Ouellet was Archbishop of Quebec and before he became a curial prefect.
The cardinal said he was “taking legal action for defamation before the courts of Québec in order to prove the falsity of the allegations,” as well as to restore his reputation and honor.
The woman, initially identified only as “F,” waived her anonymity in January 2023, identifying herself as Paméla Groleau. She was an intern in pastoral ministry with the Archdiocese of Quebec beginning in 2008 and later served as a lay pastoral worker.
In his judgment, issued after a trial in Montreal on March 2-10, 2026, Castonguay examined four alleged incidents, which were said to have taken place at Church events where other people were present.
“The evidence establishes, beyond any doubt, that her allegations against Cardinal Ouellet are unfounded to such an extent that, strategically, she decided to downgrade the first three events to ‘gradations’ leading to a single alleged sexual assault,” he wrote in his conclusion.
Castonguay then addressed the final alleged incident, said to have taken place at a priestly ordination, in which Groleau claimed that Ouellet slid his hand down her back, to the top of her buttocks.
“Regarding that specific incident, Ms. Groleau acknowledges that she changed her version to indicate that Cardinal Ouellet had touched her ‘buttocks,’ while knowing that, to the average person, this would be understood as touching the contours of the buttocks, which was not what actually happened, nor what was stated in her earlier versions,” the judge wrote.
“The court concludes that Cardinal Ouellet was the victim of defamation by Ms. Groleau.”
Castonguay said the claims’ impact on the cardinal was amplified by the allegations being lodged as part of a class-action lawsuit, which was “directed primarily at pedophile clergy, thereby associating Cardinal Ouellet, in the eyes of the ‘ordinary citizen,’ with that group of individuals.”
The Quebec Superior Court approved a CA$31.5 million (about $22.7 million) settlement for the class action Aug. 12.
The judgment published Aug. 31 indicates that Groleau is required to pay more than CA$100,000 to Ouellet, because she must also pay interest at the legal rate and an additional indemnity, accruing from Dec. 13, 2022, when the cardinal filed his defamation action.
According to CBC News, Groleau first reported her allegations anonymously to a Church advisory committee in 2008. She addressed the complaint to Pope Francis in 2021.
Pope Francis asked Belgian Jesuit Fr. Jacques Servais to undertake a preliminary investigation in 2022. After Servais submitted his conclusions, the pope said that there were “insufficient elements” to open a canonical investigation for sexual assault.
Ouellet said in a statement reported by Vatican News that he was grateful that “the civil justice system of my country has recognized that the allegations of sexual assault made against me were false and formulated with ‘extreme recklessness equivalent to malice,’ and that the person concerned has been held responsible for the ‘infamous’ and defamatory statements made against me and widely circulated throughout the world.”
He underlined his “commitment to continuing the fight within the Church and society against every form of abuse, particularly sexual abuse,” and expressed unreserved support for “substantiated victims in their pursuit of restorative justice.”
Groleau’s lawyers told Radio-Canada Aug. 31 they would not be making any comment and did not say whether they would appeal the decision.
I'm glad His Eminence's name was restored.
I'm also frustrated that being a member of the Sacred College means you have the platform to restore one's name publicly when so many diocesan priests are living in a sort of limbo even after having their name cleared.