AS A YOUNG BOY growing up in Quebec, one of Marc Ouellet’s summer jobs was helping to fight forest fires. Decades later, and now a cardinal of the Roman Church, he has boldly stepped forward to try to douse the flames of the ecclesial blaze set alight by Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

In a trenchant letter released last Sunday, the 74-year-old Canadian prelate sets out to dismantle the central charges made by Archbishop Viganò in his explosive August “testimony” against Pope Francis, in which he accuses the Pope of lifting canonical sanctions imposed on Archbishop Theodore McCarrick by Pope Benedict and elevating him to the status of trusted advisor, and calls on the Pope to resign.