eliminate sectarianism from public education. He doubted that teachers could provide instruction with "complete neutrality" to "produce a new little Quebecer, pluralist, expert in interreligious relations and critical of all beliefs". He advocated the protection of Quebec's religious heritage, which he described as "a force for social integration much more effective than the abstract knowledge of a few simple notions about six or several religions". At a rally against abortion in 2010, Ouellet said that abortions should not be performed in cases of pregnancy from rape, saying "But there is already a victim. Must there be another one?" In May 2010 Ouellet stood by his comments that abortion is unjustifiable, even in the case of rape, and urged the federal government to help pregnant women keep their child. He said that "Governments are funding clinics for abortion. I would like equity for organizations that are defending also life. If we have equity in funding those instances to help women I think we would make lots of progress in Canada". Having earlier applauded prime minister Stephen Harper's government for its stance against funding abortions in the developing world, he added: "If they do not want to fund abortion abroad and they do not bring at home more help to women to keep their child, I think they are incoherent". Cardinal On 21 October 2003, at the first consistory for creating cardinals following Ouellet's appointment to Quebec, Pope John Paul made him a cardinal, assigning him as a cardinal priest to Santa Maria in Traspontina. He was a cardinal elector in the 2005 papal conclave. Anticipating that gathering, John L. Allen writing in the National Catholic Reporter placed Ouellet among twenty candidates for the papacy. He noted Ouellet's attachment to traditional liturgical practices and a certain disaffection with developments since the Second Vatican Council, but said that "people who have worked with Ouellet describe him as friendly, humble and flexible, and a man not so captive to his own intellectual system as to make him incapable of listening to others." One account of the balloting said that Ouellet had supported Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who became Pope Benedict XVI. On 24 November 2003, Pope John Paul named him a member of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments and a consultor for the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. Pope Benedict XVI included him among the papal appointees to the