MONTREAL — The ombudswoman of Montreal's Roman Catholic archdiocese says she's seen an improvement in the handling of abuse complaints since raising concerns about it last year.
Marie Christine Kirouack on Tuesday issued her latest report on complaints received by the archdiocese of Montreal since her job was created two years ago.
Her previous report, in December, said delays in certain files had become "interminable" and had caused some complainants to lose faith in the process. But in her latest update — the sixth since she took the post in May 2021 — Kirouack said the complaint process has become more timely and that sanctions against church personnel have been carried out more quickly.
"It is not easy to integrate big changes in an institution that has had its own way of dealings internally with problems for many decades," Kirouack wrote in Tuesday's report. "But I see glimmers of hope here and there."
Kirouack has received 212 complaints to date, including 76 complaints involving abuse, of which 45 were sexual in nature. She noted that there were outstanding issues to be worked out, adding that employees were still learning different archival systems. She said delays were still too long for victims and for those who were subjects of complaints.
Problems at the archdiocese led to the departure of the retired Quebec Superior Court justice who drafted a landmark report in 2020 calling for better oversight and transparency within the church. Pepita G. Capriolo was hired in 2019 by the archdiocese to investigate how it handled the case of Brian Boucher, a priest who was sentenced that year to eight years in prison for abusing two boys.
Capriolo was part of a transition team that was implementing the recommendations she had made in her report on Boucher, but she quit in December because of resistance to implementing them.
In a statement Tuesday, Archbishop Christian Lépine said the church remains committed to bringing about all of Capriolo's recommendations, and highlighted progress made since the church hired an ombudswoman — a key recommendation in the judge's 2020 report.
"Our objective in mandating (Kirouack) was to put all the means in place to continue freeing the voices of victims and to allow them to obtain the support they need in their difficult healing process," Lépine said.
Kirouack said she believes the system can work. "When the system works, it gives remarkable results both in preventing such situations from recurring, and in helping to heal those who have been victims of abuse from members of the clergy."
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 20, 2023.
Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press
