[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

The prosecutor should ask for a hearing and then file a motion requesting the court seize Laws' passport, since he is a flight risk.

[history_matters]

I would expect that Cardinal Law has a Vatican passport and would be able to leave under diplomatic immunity.

I believe what we have in this "announcement" is what Andrew Greeley describes as directing the Vatican from abroad. Someone puts forward the idea that the Vatican is going to do something; the story makes its way to the Vatican, and in short order it becomes a done deed.

(Before all this I never thought I'd refer to Andrew Greeley at all. Strange times...)