The Vatican is officially contesting a judgment handed down against a cardinal of the Catholic Church. Mgr Marc Ouellet was convicted by a French court following his decision to exclude a nun from his congregation.
The Holy See made public on Saturday a note verbale addressed to France. He protests against the civil conviction of the cardinal, who was acting under papal mandate to settle a dispute linked to the exclusion of a Sister from a religious community. The Vatican says the cardinal did not act without a pontifical mandate and that the decision to dismiss the nun was taken immediately by the Dominicans of the Holy Spirit, a religious congregation of the Pope. The decision of exclusion had motivated Sister Marie Ferréol, born Sabine Baudin de la Valette, to file a complaint against the prelate but also against her own religious congregation, denouncing a dismissal “without reason, without the possibility of defending herself, in harsh conditions and vexatious" after 34 years of consecrated life.