Seems pretty clear - the Vatican is concerned about their liability.
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.
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)
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.
Sodano is a communist and ultra liberal, Condi should just kick him with her boots.