The Cardinal is not there, the trial is postponed. Marc Ouellet’s absence from the scheduled session of the Lorient Court may turn into an issue in France and cause embarrassment to the Vatican.

The lawsuit is a civil lawsuit filed by former nun Marie FerrolHe was expelled from the Institute of the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit in Pontcalec in October 2020 by a decision that was confirmed in the spring of 2021. The expulsion was requested by Ouellet himself at the end of an apostolic visit commissioned by the Pope and conducted by Dom Jean-Charles Nolte and Sister Emmanuelle DeJobert. After 34 years in this community, Marie Ferrol (her birth name is different) was dismissed for “evil spirit” without further explanation. This was not enough motivation for the former nun to accept the response that came from the Vatican. Convinced that she had suffered injustice, after her failed attempt to assert her rights on a legal basis, Marie Ferriol dragged the very powerful former prefect of the Congregation of Bishops before French civil justice, with the support of the lawyer Adeline Le Jouvillo de la Porte.

Although the summons ended, Ouellet did not appear in Lorient. Accordingly, the French court decided to postpone the hearing until March 6. By doing this “the judge removes any potential purely procedural problem associated with the fact that one of the parties resides abroad and has a lawyer,” Lou Jovilo de la Porte explained to Bosola. Therefore, postponement is necessary to ensure that all formalities are respected before judgment. In fact, the six-month period had not yet passed from the date of notification of the summons to the hearing for residents abroad. Because he did not appoint a lawyer, Ouellet has no legal representation in the proceedings.
Although not six months have passed yet, the former nun’s lawyer told… New compass “The European authority responsible for the citation immediately informed us that the document had already been submitted.” Last August, news of the lawsuit against Ouellet was widely reported in French-language newspapers and was also covered in one of our articles.

But the Cardinal did not approach the French court, and postponement was an inevitable result. Lawyer Lou Jovilo de la Porte also noted that the glass was half full, commenting: “It would be better for the court to eliminate these procedural problems once and for all, so that they cannot be used as an argument in a possible appeal.” Moreover, the judge could have already rejected Marie Ferrol’s reasons but did not do so, choosing instead to ensure that all procedural precautions of the case were ensured in the absence of certainty that Ouellet received the summons in the place where he resided.

But the former nun is disillusioned and continues to live in a state of extreme instability Since she was expelled from society. Monsignor Joseph Strickland tried to help her, secretly welcoming her to the Diocese of Tyler and giving her a job in the library at Bishop Gorman High School. But the news did not remain hidden, causing inevitable controversy and attracting more Vatican attention to the figure of the American bishop, who is already experiencing the storm of intolerance towards the Church’s synodal agenda.

There are those who linked the apostolic visit to Tyler to the reception of the former nun. However, the experiment in the library did not last long because the families of the students, who learned from the press of her expulsion from Pontcalec, divided among themselves, convincing Marie Ferrol to spontaneously withdraw. Now, at the age of fifty-seven and after 34 years of religious life, he finds himself without a profession and looking for work to live on. Difficult economic conditions combine with health conditions due to significant weight loss after eviction and frustration resulting from the belief of being subjected to injustice.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Ouellet, retired from the bishops’ office, continues to closely follow the life of the institute From the Dominican Sisters of the Holy Spirit, given that Francis, as he explained to the nuns in a letter dated December 2021, entrusted him with continuing the accompaniment until further notice. In addition to the Canadian cardinal, the Pope confirmed his confidence in Father Henri Denault, who appointed apostolic assistant to the institute with the mission – we read on the institute’s website – “to ensure the implementation of the guidelines presented after the visit.” Guidelines that, as far as we know, relate above all to the liturgical aspect regarding the renunciation of the so-called Latin Mass.