A few weeks after the decision of France – the only country in the world – to include the right to abortion in the Constitution (which obviously greatly irritated the Vatican and the Church beyond the Alps), another episode has further soured relations between France and Holy See: this is the case of Cardinal Marc Ouellet condemned by the civil court of Lorient to jointly pay several hundred thousand euros together with a religious order for having defamed and put on the street overnight the French nun Marie Ferreol. After thirty years of honored service in the Dominican community, due to her conservative orientation, Sister Marie found herself without resources, completely alone, pilloried. She had been judged by a sort of tribunal within the Church following a Vatican inspection ordered by the former very powerful Canadian Cardinal Ouellet, former prefect of the Dicastery of Religious.
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The Vatican responded with a very harsh statement: «a possible ruling from the Lorient Court could raise not only relevant questions regarding immunity, but if it were to rule on internal discipline and membership of a religious institute, it could having given rise to a serious violation of the fundamental rights to religious freedom and freedom of association of the Catholic faithful”. Translated it means that the Pope took the field to defend the prerogatives of the cardinal and the Holy See. A sort of Maginot Line that French justice would have crossed.
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It is, in fact, the first time that a cardinal has been called upon to respond jointly and severally by a civil court for a decision within the Church. Against the background of this very harsh reaction there is the fear that a dangerous precedent could be created capable of opening a chasm for compensation cases relating to pedophilia.
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The Vatican statement adds that it only learned of the decision of the Lorient tribunal from the press (the news had been anticipated by La Croix) and that at the moment Ouellet has never received any summons from the Court even though «he actually conducted an apostolic visit at the Institute of the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit (Dominicaines du Saint Esprit), in compliance with a pontifical mandate; at the conclusion of this visit, a series of canonical measures were adopted against Mrs. Sabine de la Valette, including her dismissal from the religious institute.”
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It all started when Ouellet, at the time responsible for the dicastery of bishops, had entrusted two nun inspectors with the task of shedding light on the case of a traditionalist religious woman who was on a collision course with her monastery. In October 2020, without providing no explanation to the nun, Sister Ferréol had been ordered to leave the community. The nun’s lawyer, Adeline le Gouvello, said: “she was not even given the opportunity to have a defense or a lawyer.” The nun found herself without housing, a job, or unemployment benefits. Nothing.
The damages calculated by the court and imposed on the defendants (and the religious order) would amount to almost 300 thousand euros. The president of the civil court, Armelle Picard, had criticized the Vatican for never having had access to the department’s documents. The Vatican, through a lawyer, has made it known that there is no right to access the confidential files.
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