The Civil Tribunal of Lorient ruled on 3 April that the exclaustration imposed on Sabine de la Valette, formerly Mother Marie Ferréol, from the Congregation of Dominicans of the Holy Spirit signed by Cardinal Ouellet in 2020, at the time Prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, had amounted to her wrongful dismissal.

During the hearing on 4 October 2023, the President of Lorient’s First Civil Chamber noted that the letter from Cardinal Marc Ouellet given to the nun during her exclusion had accused her of “systematic criticism, a partisan spirit, public demonstrations of resistance or disagreement, attacks on the truth, destructive chatter and even sometimes manipulation of people”. It was argued on behalf of Ms de la Valette that she had lived in the community without incident from 1987, but that in 2011 the situation had begun to deteriorate when she denounced what she regarded as “serious abuses”.

According to various media reports, in its judgment the tribunal emphasised that no evidence had been offered to demonstrate that Ms de la Valette’s exclaustration had been carried out in compliance with the Order’s statutes, adding that she “was also unable to prepare morally and materially to have to leave her community and her way of life immediately, in the space of a few hours, without ever returning there”. It ordered Cardinal Ouellet, the Congregation of Dominicans of the Holy Spirit and the two priests from the Vatican who conducted the investigation to pay Ms de la Valette over 200,000 euros in reparations.

Associated Press subsequently reported that the Vatican had announced that it had protested formally to the French Embassy because it had received no notification of any verdict, arguing that the ruling represented a “grave violation” of the right to religious freedom. According to French Catholic daily La Croix, the defendants are to appeal.

Religion News Service comments that “the case is highly unusual because it represented a secular civilian court essentially determining that the Vatican’s in-house canonical procedures grossly violated the nun’s fundamental rights”. But is that so surprising? The Loi concernant la séparation of 1905 abrogated almost all of the previous Concordat except in Alsace and Lorraine, so it is difficult to see why the Codex Iuris Canonici 1983 could have any higher status in French law than the rules of any other private organisation.

There is an excellent commentary and summary of the judgment (in French) by Riposte Catholique, here [with thanks to Clive Billenness].