Posted on 03/03/2005 1:56:31 PM PST by old and tired
Vatican asks Condoleezza Rice to help stop a sex abuse lawsuit Don't Miss These Other Online Features Vatican asks Condoleezza Rice to help stop a sex abuse lawsuit By John L. Allen Jr. When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the Vatican last month, her counterpart, Cardinal Angelo Sodano, asked her to intervene in a Louisville, Ky., law suit that seeks to hold the Vatican financially responsible for the sexual abuse of minors, NCR has learned. Posted Thurs. March 3, 2005 8:54 a.m. CST
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By John L. Allen Jr. NCR Rome Correspondent
Alongside predictable exchanges on Iraq, the Middle East and religious liberty, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice in her Feb. 8 visit to the Vatican also received an unexpected request -- to intervene in a U.S. lawsuit naming the Holy See as the defendant in a sex abuse case.
Church sources told NCR that Rice was asked by Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, whether the United States government could stop a class-action lawsuit currently before a United States District Court in Louisville, Ky., that seeks to hold the Vatican financially responsible for the sexual abuse of minors.
Sources told NCR that Rice explained that under American law, foreign states are required to assert claims of sovereign immunity themselves before U.S. courts.
Vatican spokesperson Joaquin Navarro-Valls, asked by NCR for comment, responded March 2: "It's obvious and reasonable that the Holy See would present its positions as a sovereign entity to the American State Department, and recall the immunity for its acts that international law anticipates."
It's not the first time, according to observers, that the Vatican has asked the State Department for help on a legal matter.
Most experts say that lawsuits against the Vatican in American courts, such as the Kentucky case that prompted Sodano's request, are a long shot. At least two dozen previous attempts have gone nowhere, not only because the Vatican is a sovereign state, but also because American courts are generally reluctant to deal with religious matters on First Amendment grounds.
Yet Sodano's decision to raise the matter with Rice suggests concern in Rome that sooner or later its immunity may give way, exposing the Vatican to potentially crippling verdicts.
William F. McMurry, the Louisville attorney who filed the class-action suit, told NCR March 1 that in his view "billions of dollars would be required" to compensate all the victims of sexual abuse in the United States.
The Kentucky case is one of several lawsuits currently working their way through American courts in which the Vatican is named as a defendant. Others include:
Alperin v. Vatican Bank, which deals with the Vatican's alleged role in recycling loot stolen by pro-Nazi Ustasha regime in Croatia during World War II (the Franciscan Order is also named as a defendant); Zivkovich v. Vatican Bank, a similar action; Dale v. Holy Se, a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organization (RICO) suit filed by the Insurance Commissioners of Mississippi, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri and Oklahoma, seeking $600 million in damages related to an insurance scam pulled off by Martin Frankel, allegedly using Vatican cover; A number of cases related to sexual abuse, including Doe v. Holy See in Oregon and Gomez v. Holy See in Florida. The Kentucky case is, however, the only instance in which the Holy See is the lone defendant, and the only class-action suit against the Vatican related to the sexual abuse scandals that have rocked the American church.
A 1976 law known as the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act makes it possible to sue sovereign entities in American courts under certain conditions, especially when that entity engages in commercial activity in the United States. The act has also been used to sue foreign governments for mistreatment of citizens if some aspect of that mistreatment took place in the United States. In 1996, for example, Jose Siderman, an Argentinian Jew, forced the Argentinian government to settle a lawsuit for torture he suffered in Argentina. American courts agreed to hear the action because Argentina once attempted to extradite Siderman by filing papers in the United States.
Jeffrey S. Lena, an attorney from Berkeley, Calif., who represents the Vatican in the Kentucky case and other matters, declined NCR requests for comment, referring queries to the Vatican press office.
Mark Chopko, general counsel for the U.S. bishops' conference, told NCR that in his 21 years in that role he's seen at least "two dozen" cases in which the Vatican, the papal ambassador, or even the pope himself, have been sued.
"It's extremely easy to name people in lawsuits," Chopko said. "It's how modern litigation is done -- just name everyone, in the hope that the defendants point fingers at one another."
Chopko said that often the paperwork in these cases is never even served on the Vatican, a complicated step involving transmission through the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, and they end up being dismissed. He said he's not aware of a single case in which the Vatican has suffered a negative judgment in an American court.
Notice has been served on the Vatican in the Kentucky case.
When notice is served, Chopko said, it's a fairly routine step for the Holy See to request action from the State Department, which can ask the Department of Justice to recommend against moving forward because of the Vatican's sovereign status. When that happens, Chopko said, it's usually enough to bring the matter to a close. For example, he said, a case named Guardian F v. Holy See in the early 1990s was tossed out of a Texas state trial court on this basis.
Legal observers, however, say that the State Department does not generally like to be involved in such cases, intervening only when there is an "overriding foreign policy interest."
McMurry and other attorneys suing the Vatican argue that it played a principal role in covering up sexual abuse of children on American territory. McMurry points to a 1962 Vatican document, Crimen Sollicitationis, which he alleges "proves that the Holy See ordered American bishops not to comply with civil laws on reporting childhood sexual abuse." (See NCR Aug. 13, 2003 and The Word from Rome Aug. 8, 2003 and Aug. 15, 2003.)
Other experts say that document, which concerned abuse of the sacrament of confession to solicit sexual favors, imposed secrecy on the church's internal procedures but did not prohibit penitents or others from reporting criminal activity to the civil authorities.
McMurry also argued that the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act shouldn't even enter into his case, because the Vatican was not acting as a sovereign state but as a "religious organization" in its policies on sexual abuse.
Chopko, however, said that even if attorneys such as McMurry could get past sovereignty and First Amendment considerations, their argument would fail on the merits.
"The idea that the Holy See is managing directly all these activities of the church is not well-taken," he said. "Supervision of clergy is vested directly with the local bishops, and nowhere else."
For that reason, Chopko said, the Holy See's legal exposure is "remote."
California attorney Jon Levy, who represents the plaintiffs in the Alperin case, said that of all the legal action against the Vatican in American courts, the insurance commissioners' suit may stand the best chance of going forward. In that case, the allegation is that a foundation linked to the Holy See was involved in a scam to loot seven American insurance companies. A former Vatican official, Monsignor Emilio Colagiovanni, was fined $15,000 in federal court and received five years probation on state charges in Mississippi related to the case.
Chopko, however, said that the fraud in the Frankel case had already occurred by the time that the Vatican-linked foundation became involved.
McMurry said that he's awaiting a decision in his case on a request to depose victims. Eventually, McMurry said, he wants to depose Vatican officials, to establish "what they knew and when they knew it."
McMurry said he's financing the lawsuit personally, and that he knows it's "high-risk litigation." Yet he said he has "fire in the belly" out of his experience of representing 243 victims, whom he said were abused by 38 priests over 30 years.
"This won't be over until the party who is directly accountable is brought to justice, and in my opinion that's the Holy See," he said.
Current estimates are that payments related to sex abuse lawsuits have already cost American dioceses $750 million, a figure expected to rise as other cases make their way through the system. Given that this amount is roughly equivalent to the Vatican's total patrimony of $770 million (which includes some 30 buildings and 1,700 apartments in Rome, investments, stock portfolios and capital funds), the possibility of similar judgments in American courts against the Holy See is a subject of alarm in Rome.
A senior Vatican source told NCR some months ago that the possibility of becoming implicated in civil litigation is one reason the Holy See has been reluctant to enter into the details of sex abuse policy in the United States.
John L. Allen Jr. is NCR Vatican correspondent. His e-mail address is jallen@natcath.org
Seems pretty clear - the Vatican is concerned about their liability.
The vatican would do better to bust of dioceses and get rid of bad priests.
Why should help out the vatican after their lack of help in iraq?
The Vatican has not been responsive to a flock demanding accountability and reform. Their solution was to quietly shuffle molestors into someone else's backyard.
But now that Mammon is threatened, they're all ears.
I hop Condi told them to go jump in a lake.
Well, yeah. But I've got three things running through my head. I believe in my heart of hearts that this current crop of lawsuits is about money grubbing lawyers so I feel some sympathy. However, as a Catholic, I've been outraged for years over the Vatican's laissez-faire attitude about all the homosexual priests preying on teenage boys and the bishops who've allowed it.
And finally as an American, I'm pretty sure if they don't get satisfaction they'll be dragging in the UN or the World Court. And I'm not sure who those bozos hate more, Catholics or Americans. Not that I suppose it matters, as long as Bush is president.
I found this from the time the suit was filed. McMurry states what he "believes" is true regarding the number of victims. Apparently the Vatican knew all the details. Or, at least, should bear the financial responsibility.
I wonder how soon he will propose a settlement conference? I wonder if he has filed his motions for the injunctions?
Louisville Courier-Journal
Louisville attorney sues the Vatican
By Peter Smith and Andrew Wolfson, The Courier-Journal
Lawsuit over sex abuse by priests faces hurdles
June 6, 2004 -- A Louisville attorney filed a federal lawsuit against the Vatican yesterday, accusing leaders of the Roman Catholic Church of orchestrating a cover-up of priests who allegedly molested thousands of American children.
William McMurry -- who last year represented 243 victims in reaching a $25.7 million settlement with the Archdiocese of Louisville -- filed yesterday's suit on behalf of three men alleging abuse as far back as 1928 in the Louisville area.
McMurry is seeking to have the lawsuit certified as a class-action case, saying in the suit that he believes there are "at least several thousand" victims nationwide.
"This lawsuit is designed to lay the responsibility for all childhood sexual abuse committed by priests in America at the feet of the responsible party, and that's the Vatican," McMurry said in an interview with The Courier-Journal.
Although dioceses in Louisville and elsewhere have paid settlements, he said the "financial responsibility should be shared, if not borne entirely, by the Vatican."
A receptionist at the Vatican embassy in Washington referred questions to the Vatican's press office in Rome, which closed before the suit was filed yesterday morning.
Mark Chopko, general counsel for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, called McMurry's suit a "long shot" that likely will be dismissed. Chopko also questioned McMurry's decision to sue on behalf of plaintiffs who already settled with dioceses. "They have already had their day in court."
In the suit -- filed in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky -- McMurry is asking for unspecified monetary damages from the Vatican. He also is requesting injunctions requiring the Vatican to "cease its violations of the internationally recognized human rights of children" and "to report all allegations of childhood sexual abuse" in the United States.
And he is asking a federal judge to supervise the Vatican's conduct for 10 years. The suit was assigned to Judge John G. Heyburn II.
Legal scholars say McMurry will face towering obstacles in what they say is the first class-action suit against the Vatican regarding sexual abuse, and the first sexual-abuse lawsuit to name the Vatican as the sole defendant.
Other lawyers have named the Vatican as a co-defendant with dioceses and religious orders in sexual-abuse lawsuits. Those cases either have been dismissed or are pending.
Even if a court finds that McMurry's clients have a legal standing to sue, it will be hard to prove that the Vatican knew about abuse and failed to act on it, said Boston lawyer Roderick MacLeish Jr., who has represented more than 400 plaintiffs in priest-abuse cases.
"I have reviewed thousands of pages of documents surrendered by the Archdiocese of Boston but haven't seen a scintilla of evidence showing the Vatican knew what was going on," he said.
(Excerpt)
As soon as the coin in the coffer rings
The soul from Purgatory springs.
I've heard that somewhere before.
So9
Here is my response to the article:
The homosexual priest abuse scandal doesn't stop at the archdiocese of Boston, or LA, or Louisville, or the hundreds of other parishes and diocesan chancery offices. The scandal also goes to Rome where many of these abuses where known, yet Bishops remained in place to enable the perpetrators to move from parish to parish without penalty -- except for the sins, deceptions, lies, and victims left everywhere. And several Bishops are also directly implicated in many of these acts. Question: Where do they report? Times up. Rome.
Let all the TRUTH come out with these lawsuits. Let the chips fall where they may. The healing won't begin until every shred of evidence is out in the open. We are a long way from the painful TRUTH and its path all the way to and through Rome during this post Vatican II era.
Let the chips fall where they may.
What action would you have had the Vatican take?
Sodano is a communist and ultra liberal, Condi should just kick him with her boots.
BTTT
My understanding is that the Vatican is not accountable to the flock. But, I would have purged the clergy of all molestors (and paid for their legal defense) and set up a program to educate the rest on how to recognize and report innapropriate behavior with children.
Understand, I'm not blaming the church for the problem - the molestors are 1% of the chruch, less than avg for the public. But the church was guilty of covering it up and making the problem worse.
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