Cardinal Canada Gérald Lacroix was accused of sexual harassment towards a teenage girl. These allegations were revealed as part of a class action against the Archdiocese of Quebec.
As shown AFPOn Friday (1/26/2024), trial lawyer Alain Arsenault said Lacroix, 66, faced allegations of sexual harassment and assault dating back to 1987 and 1988, when the victim was 17 .
Arsenault said victims now feel freer to express themselves and the accused “have been protected for a long time.” He hopes more victims will come forward and join the class action lawsuit.
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Lacroix is known to be close to Pope Francis He has been archbishop of Quebec since 2011 and cardinal since 2014. He served last year on the Pope’s Advisory Council of Cardinals, which meets regularly in Vatican.
This class action is the last trial of the first case filed in 2022. There are testimonies from 147 people who say they are victims sexual harassment by more than 100 priests in the archdiocese, some of whom are high-ranking clergy.
The latest trial includes 46 additional victims and names more than a dozen new defendants.
A spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Quebec, Valéria Roberge-Dion, responded to the latest lawsuit. “We are still in shock as we try to understand this latest development,” he said.
In the original trial, Cardinal Marc Ouellet was accused of sexually harassing an intern from 2008 to 2010. Ouellet, who vehemently denied the allegations and called them “defamatory”, resigned in January 2023 from his position at the Vatican because of its age. .
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