VATICAN CITY
National
By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
NCR broke a story this week about a request from Cardinal Angelo Sodano, the Vatican's Secretary of State, to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in their Feb. 8 meeting, asking the State Department to intervene in a lawsuit in Kentucky seeking to hold the Vatican responsible for clerical sexual abuse in the United States. Though most legal experts describe the lawsuit as a long shot -- both because of the Holy See's status as a sovereign state and on First Amendment grounds, in addition to the fact that the Holy See is not directly involved in the supervision of clergy -- the Sodano request nevertheless reflects concern that the Vatican could be exposed to the sort of crippling payments that American dioceses have been forced to make.
Posted by kshaw at March 5, 2005 12:21 PM