SPOKANE (WA)
Spokesman-Review
Tom Sowa
Staff writer
August 12, 2005
A lawyer defending Spokane's Roman Catholic diocese from lawsuits filed by alleged sex-abuse victims said Thursday a recent Vatican statement vindicates the diocese's position that it doesn't own Spokane parishes.
But the attorney representing those victims against Spokane's diocese disagreed, saying the Vatican statement – telling the Archdiocese of Boston that it has no claim on its parish assets – has no bearing in a high-stakes legal battle about to be decided by a Spokane federal bankruptcy judge.
Shaun Cross, the Spokane attorney representing the Spokane diocese, said the Vatican statement is relevant, but he also said it won't affect the legal case.
"We have no current intention to take the step" of adding the Vatican statement to the legal case, Cross said.
Vatican officials told church leaders in Boston they have no authority to claim the assets of several parishes being closed there by Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley, according to a report in the Boston Globe.