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Supreme Court rejects Vatican appeal in sex abuse case
A protestor recites the rosary outside the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles July 15, 2007.
Credit: Reuters/Mario Anzuoni
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court refused on Monday to consider whether the Vatican has legal immunity over the sexual abuse of minors by priests in the United States, allowing a lawsuit filed in 2002 to go forward.
The nation's highest court, asked to rule on a U.S. appeals court decision that cleared the way for the lawsuit to proceed, rejected the Vatican's immunity appeal without comment.
The lawsuit, filed by a plaintiff identified only as John Doe, claimed he was sexually abused on several occasions in the mid-1960s when he was 15 or 16 by a Roman Catholic priest named Father Andrew Ronan.
According to court documents, Ronan molested boys in the mid-1950s as a priest in Ireland and then in Chicago before his transfer to a church in Portland, Oregon, where he allegedly abused the victim who filed the lawsuit. Ronan died in 1992.
The Vatican claimed immunity under a U.S. law, the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976, that allows foreign states to avoid being sued in court.
But the law contains exceptions. The appeals court cited one of those, ruling the lawsuit has sufficiently alleged that Ronan was an employee of the Vatican acting within the scope of his employment under Oregon law.
Pope Benedict met victims of abuse by priests during his April 2008 visit to the United States. The U.S. church has paid $2 billion in settlements to victims since 1992.
In recent months, child abuse allegations against Catholic priests have rocked the United States and Europe, forcing resignations of bishops in Ireland, Belgium and Germany in the biggest crisis in Benedict's five-year pontificate.
In the Oregon case, the Obama administration backed the Vatican and said the appeals court erred in ruling that a victim's claim of sexual abuse by a priest falls within the exception to foreign sovereign immunity law.
But administration lawyers said the ruling did not warrant review by the Supreme Court "at this time."
(Editing by John O'Callaghan)
Given the widespread incidence of abuses by the Vatican’s employees around the world it is ludicrous for the “holy see” to even advance a request for immunity on any grounds. The history of the Church’s crimes against non-Catholics throughout history by the inquisition is legend. And that went on into the 20th century in some places. – But then, it seems that such offenses against men and women is common to almost all religions, some worse than others.
SO WHAT! I very much doubt that the plaintiffs can reach their hands across the ocean into the pockets of the Vatican thru the U.S. Federal courts. It’s meaningless rhetoric; and a waste of taxpayer money.
Bravo to the US Supreme Court for having the balls to hold the Vatican accountable for the sins of the clergy that they have condoned and hidden for much too long!
Lauri Lumby
Authentic Freedom Ministries
http://www.authenticfreedom.net
According to the Internal Revenue Service, priest are in fact self-employed. therefor because they happen to also be under the rules of the Vatican this does not mean that they are in any way employed by the Vatican but by a parish or at least a diocese in some small way.
The Catholic Church is an organization whose ultimate goals are financial increase, membership increase, power over others and strict compliance by all clerics. How could anyone believe that this church is NOT cuplpable for the actions of its designated, trained and assigned clergy?
Although allowing a lawsuit against the Holy See creates a precedent that can be used against other sovereign states, the problem with the Catholic Church is that it no longer exists in the Middle Ages when a distinction between church and state was less clear. The Catholic Church cannot have it both ways: is it a political or a spiritual organization? It always acts as a political entity, basing its claims on church law rather than doing the right thing. Since the Catholic Church’s legal thinking is part of the development of European culture, the intricacies of its understanding of iteself are bound up in a long historical narrative from which, fortunately, American jurisprudence is exempt. I’m glad that the Supreme Court has done the right thing and has helped to force the Catholic Church to act as a spiritual agent capable of demonstrating that its claims might be true. I’m not going to hold my breath, though, waiting for the Holy Spirit to act through these corrupt and politically astute servants. It’s time the Catholic Church realize that without the “corrupt” world its crimes against humanity would continue to go unnoticed, exactly what it has always wanted.
