François Gloutnay

Canadian Cardinal Marc Ouellet of the Vatican's Dicastery for Bishops has been accused of sexual misconduct by a second woman in the Quebec Archdiocese, a French newsmagazine reported on Jan. 18.

A preliminary Vatican investigation into allegations against Cardinal Marc Ouellet concluded there was not sufficient evidence to warrant opening up formal proceedings against the cardinal for sexual assault, a Vatican spokesman said.

Cardinal Marc Ouellet, prefect of the Vatican Dicastery for Bishops, is named in a list of alleged abusers filed in support of a class-action lawsuit against the Archdiocese of Quebec.

The ruling on a class action involving Famille Marie-Jeunesse opens the way for people who claim to have been physically, spiritually or psychologically abused within the Catholic group to join the legal case.

For more than three decades, leaders of the Archdiocese of Montreal failed to properly treat the complaints and the red flags periodically raised about Fr. Brian Boucher, said a report prepared by retired Quebec Superior Court Judge Pepita G. Capriolo. Instead, church authorities seemed intent on covering the priest's behavior to protect his and the church's reputation, she wrote.

The archbishop of Montreal worries that Quebec's secularism legislation will affect religious liberties in this Canadian province.

Some Quebec bishops have expressed discomfort that the main Quebec organizer for the May 9 National March for Life in Ottawa signed a letter accusing Pope Francis of heresy.

In a letter addressed to the Canadian bishops and the leaders of their Caritas affiliate, prominent leaders of the Catholic Church in the Philippines criticized a moratorium on at least four Philippine associations.

Five dioceses from the province of Quebec will allow an external audit of their files regarding sex abuse cases, the Archdiocese of Montreal announced March 27.

In a statement issued a few minutes after the broadcast of a story from Radio-Canada investigating sexual abuse allegedly committed by 10 Oblate missionaries in First Nation communities, the Quebec Assembly of Catholic Bishops told of their "indignation and shame" for the "terrible tragedy of sexual and physical abuse of minors by members of the clergy or religious communities."

The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued stricter rules for media who want to cover its annual plenary assembly to be held in Cornwall, Ontario, Sept. 24-28.

Oblate Father Alexis Joveneau was said to have inappropriately touched women and girls in the Innu community in Quebec where he ministered from 1953 until his death in 1992.

The Canadian bishops will not publish their new policy for the protection of minors before 2018, said Bishop Anthony Mancini of Halifax-Yarmouth, Nova Scotia.