Cardinal Gérald Cyprien Lacroix was suspected of touching a 17-year-old girl at the end of the 1980s. After an investigation requested by the Pope from a retired Quebec magistrate, no convincing evidence was retained to justify the prosecutions against the high prelate, the Vatican announced on Tuesday May 21.
1 min
With our correspondent in Rome, Eric Senanque
It was in February that the Pope Francis asks retired Quebec magistrate André Denis to investigate allegations of sexual assault against the Archbishop of Quebec.
According to a collective complaint targeting the diocese, the cardinal’s name appears in a list of officials implicated for abuse, Gérald Cyprien Lacroix being suspected of touching a 17-year-old girl, facts dating back to the years 1987-88, then that he was a simple priest.
André Denis completed his report on May 6, then communicated to the Pope, estimating that nothing allowed “ to identify any act of misconduct on the part of Cardinal Lacroix “. Consequently, no canonical procedure will be initiated against the cardinal, specified the spokesperson for the Vatican.
Created a cardinal in 2014 by Pope Francis, the current archbishop of Quebec had withdrawn from the affairs of his diocese while the investigation was taking place, but he always benefited from the confidence of the sovereign pontiff.
Since last year, he has been part of the C9, the Council of Cardinals who assist the Argentine Pope in the government of the Catholic Church. In this capacity, he has made the trip to Rome twice since the start of the year.
To rereadCanada: the Pope recognizes a “genocide” in the drama of residential schools for indigenous people (2022)