...."He [Father Baldwin] was provided with the premises, the pulpit and the clerical robes. He was directed into the community with that full authority and was given free rein to act as a representative of the church. He had been trained and ordained for the purpose. He had immense power handed to him by the defendants [the trustees of the Roman Catholic diocesan trust]. It was they who appointed him to the position of trust, which (if the allegations be proved) he so abused."
Does this mean that the entire Penn State school be responsible for the homosexual attacks by a coach on less than twenty young boys?
This is a natural consequence of Protestantism affecting the law.
I wonder which excuse they will trot out this time.
I think it’s 235, “The Roman Catholic* Church really doesn’t maintain the oversight that everyone thinks.”
*Big C
Since the decision is being appealed I would think it will be overturned or at least modified in some way.
As a precedent it would apply to other religious bodies with ordained ministers or priests and as the article stated it will make it much easier to bring cases to court, not something most courts would want.
Then of course simply bringing a case to court is not winning the case.
This harkens back to a formative case in civil law in the US, that determined, for the first time, that a corporation could be held accountable (liable) for the activities of its employees. A case well remembered because of its scatological underpinnings.
Back in the good old days, railroad passenger trains had toilets that dumped directly on to the tracks. Because of this, passenger toilets were normally kept locked until the train had left the station. However, in this case, a door was left unlocked, and the toilet was being used by a passenger while still in the station.
Likewise, railroad stations had an employee of the railroad, who carried both a hammer and a fiery torch. He used the hammer to bang on wheels, a sour tone indicating a wheel was cracked, and he used the torch to look in the dark, hidden spots of the train favored by hobos attempting to hitch a free ride.
Well, one such employee was banging on wheels, and chose to look up into a dark area at the very moment the passenger decided to flush the toilet. Angered by a face full of feces, the employee used his fiery torch to attack the nether regions of the unsuspecting passenger, to his detriment.
Thus a lawsuit against the railroad, for the injurious misbehavior of its employee, was filed by the otherwise injured and indignant former passenger.
For the first time, finding for the passenger, the court established the founding case of consumer liability in the United States, from which endless litigation has evolved, and the event entered the law textbooks forever.
1 Corinthians 5 1It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and of a kind that is not tolerated even among pagans, for a man has his father’s wife. 2And you are arrogant! Ought you not rather to mourn? Let him who has done this be removed from among you.
3For though absent in body, I am present in spirit; and as if present, I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did such a thing. 4When you are assembled in the name of the Lord Jesus and my spirit is present, with the power of our Lord Jesus, 5you are to deliver this man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord.
6 Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? 7Cleanse out the old leaven that you may be a new lump, as you really are unleavened. For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Let us therefore celebrate the festival, not with the old leaven, the leaven of malice and evil, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.
9I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral people— 10 not at all meaning the sexually immoral of this world, or the greedy and swindlers, or idolaters, since then you would need to go out of the world. 11But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. 12For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? 13God judges those outside. "Purge the evil person from among you."